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INTRODUCTION

Formerly: Directory of Family and Domestic Violence Statistics, 2013

Family, domestic, and sexual violence is a community-wide issue that requires a whole-of-government response. In the current policy environment, the Australian Federal Government takes the lead in developing national approaches to family and domestic violence policy, while state and territory governments have a broad set of responsibilities across a number of sectors, including crime and justice, crime prevention and behaviour change, public health, child protection, and family and domestic violence services. As such, there is a wide range of data sources available across Australia relating to family and domestic violence.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) Directory of Family, Domestic, and Sexual Violence Statistics (the Directory) aims to improve awareness and utilisation of family, domestic, and sexual violence data collected by or on behalf of Australian governments, by providing a single repository of publicly available data sources.

Since the previous issue of the Directory (released in 2013), there have been changes to the policy and information environment surrounding family and domestic violence. As a result, the 2018 release of the Directory provides an updated and expanded repository of information. Furthermore, the 2018 Directory includes information about sexual violence data sources for the first time.

The ABS acknowledges the support of the Department of Social Services (DSS), who provided funding for the ABS to undertake the 2018 update of the Directory under the auspices of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010-2022 (the National Plan). The ABS would also like to acknowledge the collaboration and assistance provided by the agencies and organisations that contributed to the update of the Directory.

Further information about family and domestic violence services delivered by the Federal and state and territory governments is outlined in The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.

EXPANSION OF THE DIRECTORY

In accordance with the statistical objectives of the National Plan, the scope of the 2018 edition of the Directory has been expanded to include sexual violence data sources.

In addition, thematically focused pages have been incorporated, including:

• an organisations and agencies page, containing information about selected research organisations and agencies that produce regular statistical outputs and research on the topics of family, domestic, and sexual violence;
• a service-provider page, containing information about family, domestic, and sexual violence support services (e.g. helplines, legal services, crisis services, counselling services) that publish statistics about their service activities; and
• a family and domestic homicide page, containing information about sources of family and domestic homicide data.