- Access Points (in relation to The Orange Door network) - Access points are branded The Orange Door network locations that have at least one permanent multidisciplinary team that delivers the full suite of The Orange Door services.
- Affected family member - The term affected family member is used by police to refer to the individual deemed to be most harmed and affected by events occurring during a family violence incident. Police assess risk, considering past family violence and any recorded criminal history. They identify who is being harmed and affected the most during an incident.
- Central Information Point - The Central Information Point consolidates information about a perpetrator of family violence into a single report for frontline practitioners to assess and manage risk of family violence. This brings together workers and information from the Magistrate’s Court of Victoria, Victoria Police, Corrections Victoria and Child Protection in the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.
- Child Information Sharing Scheme - The Child Information Sharing Scheme allows authorised organisations to share information to support child wellbeing or safety. This ensures that professionals working with children, young people and families can gain a complete view of the children and young people they work with, making it easier to identify wellbeing or safety needs earlier, and to act on them sooner. This will allow children to receive the best support possible across services.
- Children and young people - Children and young people are classified as anyone younger than 18 years of age. This is the same meaning as set out in section 4 of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic). Young person can refer to people up to age 25 reflecting ongoing developmental stages into adulthood.
- Family Violence Incident (or Family Incident) - When family violence is reported to or detected by Victoria Police, a Family Violence Report (also known as an L17 form) is completed. Each separate L17 form corresponds with a distinct Family Violence Incident.
- Family Violence Order - Family Violence Orders include family violence intervention orders, interim family violence intervention orders and/or family violence safety notices. These orders include conditions to stop the respondent from using family violence against the protected person. If the respondent breaks the conditions of an intervention order, police can charge them with a criminal offence.
- Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme - The Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme enables the sharing of information between authorised organisations to assess and manage family violence risk.
- Family Violence Intervention Order Breach/Contravention - If a respondent breaks the conditions of an family violence intervention order, family violence safety notice or a counselling order, police can charge them with a criminal offence. This is called a breach or contravention. A breach/contravention occurs when a respondent for an active and served intervention order breaks the conditions of that intervention order. This is relevant to all intervention orders, including Family Violence Intervention Orders and Family violence Safety Notices.
- Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework - The Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework provides a system-wide approach to risk assessment and management. The MARAM Framework is approved by the relevant Minister under section 189 of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic). It prescribes a range of organisations and sectors to align their risk assessment and management activities with the MARAM Framework.
- Family violence sector - The family violence sector encompasses all stakeholders who work within the family violence workforce and contribute to the family violence reform.
- Family violence system - The family violence system incorporates all the family violence initiatives conducted by the sector as part of the family violence reform.
- L17 form - An L17 form refers to the Victoria Police Risk Assessment and Management Report that Victoria Police are required to complete after they have attended a family incident. The report is completed when family incidents, interfamilial-related sexual offences, and child abuse are reported to police.
- Offender - An ‘offender’ describes a person who has been found guilty of an offence.
- Perpetrator - A perpetrator of family violence is an adult who uses violence or threatening, coercive or controlling behaviour against family members as defined in the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic), in current or past family, domestic or intimate relationships.
- Predominant aggressor - The predominant aggressor is the term used to describe the person, who through known history and actions within a relationship, is exerting the greatest amount of harm and control over their partner or family member. This could be through any number of abusive behaviours including physical and sexual violence, coercive control, threats, intimidation, emotional abuse, stalking and isolation.
- Primary prevention - Whole of population initiatives that address the primary (‘first’ or ‘underlying’) drivers of violence. Primary prevention works by identifying the deep underlying causes of violence. This includes the social norms, structures and practices that influence individual attitudes and behaviours. Primary prevention acts across the whole population to change these, not just the behaviour of perpetrators.
- Primary prevention workforce - The primary prevention of family violence workforce includes those who work to prevent family violence through systemic / organisational / community-level initiatives. Example roles include family violence primary prevention officer or practitioner, family violence or respectful relationships educator, gender equity officer, prevention of violence against women officer, family violence health promotion officer, manager or trainer of primary prevention officers or practitioners, etc.
- Respondent - In both individual and police applications for family violence intervention orders, the ‘respondent’ describes the person against whom an intervention order is sought.
- Royal Commission into Family Violence - The Royal Commission was Australia’s first Royal Commission into Family Violence. It was the established in 2015 after a number of family violence-related deaths in Victoria – most notably the death of Luke Batty. The role of the Commission was to find ways to: prevent family violence, improve support for victim survivors and hold perpetrators to account. The Commission included 25 days of public hearings. Community conversations were held with over 800 Victorians and nearly 1,000 written submissions were received. The Commission made 227 recommendations to reduce the impact of family violence in our community, with the Victorian Government committing to implement all recommendations.
- Specialist family violence practitioners (workers) - Specialist family violence practitioners are people who work directly with victim survivors, perpetrators, or cases of family violence as a family violence response specialist, or those who work directly with family violence response specialists as a manager, supervisor or trainer, or in a capacity building, policy or practice development role. Example roles include family violence or justice case manager, family violence outreach, refuge worker, counsellor / phone support, crisis worker, men’s behaviour change practitioner or case manager, RAMP Coordinator, intake or enhanced intake, sexual assault worker, family violence court practitioner or family violence court registrar, etc.
- Specialist family violence services - Specialist family violence services provide front line support for those experiencing family violence.
- The Orange Door network - The Orange Door is part of the Victorian Government’s response to the Royal Commission. The Orange Door is a free service for adults, children and young people who are experiencing or have experienced family violence and families who need extra support with the care of children. The Orange Door provides access to a range of family violence and family services in person, or over the phone. To make it easier for people to be safer and supported, The Orange Door brings together workers from specialist family violence services, family services, Aboriginal services and services for men who use violence.
- Unique affected family members - The count of unique affected family members is the number of individuals who were recorded as an affected family member in any given year. Where an affected family member has been involved in incidents across a number of years, they will appear in each year in which they were recorded.
- Universal services - Universal services refer to services that are not specialised to deal with family violence. These include health services (e.g. general practitioners, maternal and child health services, hospitals), education (e.g. early childhood education, schools, universities and TAFE), and other social services. These services can provide opportune environments to identify family violence and intervene early.
- Victim survivor - Victim survivor refers to adults, children and young people who experience family violence. Under the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic), children are considered victim survivors if they experience family violence directed at them or are exposed to the effects of family violence, including being present to or witnessing a family violence incident.
- Young person ‘who uses violence’ - Young people between the ages of 10 and 17 who use family violence are no longer referred to as an ‘adolescent or young person’ who uses violence. Common language is now ‘young person who uses family violence’ as a distinct group. This cohort requires distinct responses tailored to the age, developmental stage and circumstances of the young person and their concurrent safety and developmental needs. Young people who use violence against a family member are often also themselves victim survivors. In some instances, young people are misidentified as using violence where there is an adult perpetrator in the family.
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