On this page:
Contact details
Purpose
Description
Definition of family and domestic violence
Relationship to Defining the data challenge for family, domestic and sexual violence (cat. no. 4529.0)
Family and domestic violence related content (data items collected)
Collection methodology
Scope / Target population
Coverage
Data availability / Dissemination
Publications
Collection history
Other directory data sources held by this agency


FAMILY VIOLENCE AND FAMILY LAW IN AUSTRALIA; THE EXPERIENCES AND VIEWS OF CHILDREN AND ADULTS FROM FAMILIES WHO SEPARATED POST–1995 AND POST–2006

DASHBOARD METADATA

Collection type		Geographic coverage		Frequency		Data availability
Survey		National Capital city City/region		Once only		Detailed publication/report publicly available Customised data - free upon request 1

[1] May be subject to release conditions


DETAILED METADATA

Contact details

Data custodian	Australian Government Attorney-General's Department
Contact	Commonwealth Copyright Administration
Address	3-5 National Circuit, Barton, ACT 2600
Telephone	02 6141 6666
Facsimile	n/a
Email	n/a
Internet	http://www.ag.gov.au

Data Enquiries

Researcher	Associate Professor Dale Bagshaw, University of South Australia
Telephone	08 8302 4864
Email	Dale.Bagshaw@unisa.edu.au

PURPOSE

To examine the impact of family violence, which had occurred before, during and or after parental relationship breakdown, on post-separation decision-making and arrangements as viewed by children and parents.

DESCRIPTION

This research project sought to discover parents’ and children’s perspectives on:

• The effect that a history or existence of violence within the relationship has on the decisions that people make about accessing the courts and dispute resolution services;
• The effect that a history or the existence of violence within the relationship has on the decisions people make while they are at court and at dispute resolution services;
• The effect that a history or the existence of violence within the relationship has on post-separation parenting arrangements.

Since the brief included considering the impact of the Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) 2006 (Cth), the research sought views from parents and children from 1995 to the present time to enable a comparison to be made between the period prior to the introduction of the amendments and the period afterwards.

DEFINITION OF FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

This research included domestic violence and/or child abuse.

Aspects of family and domestic violence included in the data are:

• physical abuse;
• sexual abuse;
• psychological /emotional abuse;
• economic abuse;
• social abuse;
• control; and
• neglect.

RELATIONSHIP TO DEFINING THE DATA CHALLENGE FOR FAMILY, DOMESTIC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE (cat. no. 4529.0)

The summary table below is designed to indicate the amount of information available for each of the six elements outlined in Defining the Data Challenge for Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence, 2013 (cat. no. 4529.0).This is a subjective assessment made by the ABS about the data collected and is not an indication of data quality.

Conceptual Framework	Amount of Information Available
Element/Sub–element
	Some	Detailed
Context
Environmental factors
Psycho-social factors
Risk
Community prevalence
Community incidence
Incident/event
Responses
Formal responses
Informal responses
Impacts/Outcomes
Programs, Research & Evaluation

FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RELATED CONTENT (data items collected)

The following tables provide a detailed analysis of the availability of specified data elements in the data source. The data items have been grouped into four counting units:
1. Context;
2. Person;
3. Incident/Event; and
4. Transaction.

Tables are absent from the entry in cases where the data source contains no data items which relate to the particular counting unit/s.

Context

Data Items	Respondent (Victim)1	Perpetrator	Secondary (victim)1
Community perceptions
Neighbourhood problems
Feelings of safety/fear
Social connectedness/networks			2
Other

[1] Respondent may or may not have experienced family and domestic violence.
[2] Sources of protection and safety when violence occurs. Person

Data Items	Respondent (Victim)1	Perpetrator	Secondary (Victim)1
Residential location
Age
Sex
Indigenous status
Disability status
Country of birth
Language spoken
Employment status
Education
Income
Socio-economic status
Mental illness
Other: (health status; cultural background)

[1] Respondent may or may not have experienced family and domestic violence.Incident/event

Data Items	Available
Location of incident/event
Residential location
Workplace
Educational institution
Public Place
Other Location (not specified)
Relationship between parties
Current partner
Previous partner
Boyfriend/girlfriend/date
Parent
Child
Sibling
Other relatives
Other member of household
Personal/financial dependency
Other (length of relationship with ex-partner; nature of relationship prior to separation; reasons for relationship breakdown/separation)
Other Characteristics
Weapon used
Type of weapon
Physical injury sustained
Type of injury sustained
Pregnancy
Alcohol/substance use
Prior history of victimisation/offending
Change to routine
Time off work/economic costs
Perceptions of behaviour as criminal
Other

Transaction

Data Items	Available
Detection
Reported to police
Reasons not reported to police
Satisfaction with police response
Application for violence order
Violence order issued
Offender charged
Offender went to court
Offender sentence type
Child protection involvement
Other (access to police services; protective services)
Formal support
Services used/referral to services
Medical treatment/type
Counselling
Legal
Financial
Housing/accommodation
Crisis
Other:(access to community service providers; views of service providers)
Informal Support
Family/friends
Minister/priest
Telephone service
Other

COLLECTION METHODOLOGY

The research design included a number of different data strategies aimed at collecting data first-hand from parents and children who had experienced parental relationship breakdown, with and without family violence. The data collection strategies comprised:

• an online survey for parents (n=931);
• an online survey for children (n=105; 68 completed);
• two phone-ins for adult (n=105) and child (n=12) victims of family violence, one in South Australia and one in Queensland; and
• a call-back to a small sample of online adult respondents who volunteered to be contacted (n=33).

SCOPE / TARGET POPULATION

The four target populations identified were:

• people who attended a family relationship centre of a family dispute resolution provider;
• people who accessed the court system (instead/as well);
• those who did not access either system (but who may or may not have accessed other services); and
• children of the above groups of parents where family violence had been or was continuing to be experienced
  

COVERAGE

n/a

DATA AVAILABILITY / DISSEMINATION

Free publication accessible via the Attorney General's website. Additional requests for data can be made to the Australian Government Attorney-General's Department.

PUBLICATIONS

Family Violence and Family Law in Australia vol 1

Family Violence and Family Law in Australia vol 2

COLLECTION HISTORY

Collection commenced: 2009

Other details: n/a

OTHER DIRECTORY DATA SOURCES HELD BY THIS AGENCY

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (IRIS)
Community Legal Services Information System (CLSIS)
Shared care parenting arrangements since the 2006 Family Law Reforms: report to the Australian Government Attorney-General's Department