Perpetrators and people who use violence priority area

• A new pilot, the Integrated Counselling and Case Management program, has been implemented at the Ballarat Specialist Family Violence Court. The program addresses the complex interplay between family violence, alcohol and other drugs and/or mental health issues. The program enables greater opportunities to tailor responses through integrated case management. It also provides counselling services for eligible clients ordered to attend a Men’s Behaviour Change Program.

• Two initiatives that aim to broaden the range and reach of perpetrator interventions have been implemented –
  • Case management provides a tailored service response through the coordination of specialist services. These include mental health, alcohol and other drug, and housing services. The service assists in engagement with programs that aim to stop family violence, such as Men's Behaviour Change Programs. Brokerage funding can be used to provide practical assistance to perpetrators to decrease risk for victim survivors.
  • Perpetrator cohort interventions continue to build the evidence for trauma-informed practice. This includes the development of new interventions for perpetrators from diverse backgrounds and with complex needs.
  • Family safety contact is a part of all perpetrator interventions that provides support to current or previous victim survivors, is also being delivered.

We have implemented perpetrator accommodation initiatives to enable victim survivors to remain at home when it is safe to do so.

Housing priority area

• Through the meeting of Attorneys-General, Victoria is working with the Commonwealth and all states and territories to develop national principles on coercive control. The national principles will enable a high-level shared understanding of coercive control across jurisdictions. This will inform system responses to coercive control.
• Work has commenced to inform a discussion paper for stakeholder consultations on peer navigation and specialist family violence navigator models for perpetrator interventions. Early research has highlighted key benefits. These models could support perpetrators to better understand the family violence system. In addition it could support them to have greater compliance with orders, increased attendance at court and enhanced behaviour change outcomes.
• We established the Expert Advisory Committee on Perpetrator Interventions. It delivered its final report on ensuring the diversity of programs, services and initiatives that respond to perpetrators of family violence in Victoria. The Committee’s recommendations have been adopted through the whole of Victorian Government approach to perpetrator accountability outlined in the Rolling Action Plan.

• An evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness of the Koori Family Violence and Intervention Order Breaches pilot in Mildura is currently under way.
• Tuning into Respectful Relationships is a culturally inclusive program suitable for remand and short sentence prisoners. In 2020 and 2021, it has expanded to be run at an additional nine prisons. This means it is available in 11 of 13 public Victorian prisons.
• The development of Inclusion and Equity Blueprints has commenced. These include perpetrator intervention activities. Work is under way to implement the first blueprint. This provides a foundation for system and organisational change. This will ensure everyone has equitable and inclusive access to family violence services, no matter who they are or where they turn to for help. 

• Common clients are people who interact with multiple services across mental health, drug and alcohol, child protection and the criminal justice system. We recognise that many perpetrators of family violence may be common clients. The Better, Connected Care reform will deliver greater service integration for common clients. This will occur through new service delivery models, systems reform, changing our workforces’ practice and embedding client voice and self-determination. This includes the statewide rollout of local governance sites. This will create opportunities for more targeted efforts for priority cohorts.
• We have commenced a review of Family Violence Perpetrator Interventions in the justice setting. This will be used to improve the responsiveness of perpetrator interventions to the unique needs of the diverse perpetrator cohort.
• We have continued to embed the family violence and child information sharing and MARAM reforms. This has included guides for working with people who use violence. These have been released for those who do not primarily deal with family violence as part of their service provision, but will encounter it and need to know how to respond. Early change management and embedding activities are under way. Grants have been provided to organisations in multicultural services, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and peak bodies representing core services to continue to embed the information sharing schemes and MARAM.

Information sharing and MARAM reform

• MARAM Practice Guides and tools for adults using family violence have been released to support non-specialist workforces. These support consistent identification, assessment and management of perpetrators of family violence. They contribute to a shared understanding of key issues and practice concepts. These include drivers, coercive control, predominant aggressor identification, and using an intersectional lens when working with people using family violence. The guidance and tools prioritise safety of victim survivors. They also focus on connecting people using family violence to relevant supports to promote behaviour change.
• Our commitment to building our understanding about perpetrator characteristics and service use has continued. The Crime Statistics Agency released the paper Finding typologies of family violence perpetrators using police records. Key findings can be found on their website. The paper noted that seven distinct ‘types’ of family violence perpetrators can be identified using police records. These include four groups who perpetrated violence against their intimate partner and three groups who perpetrated violence against another type of family member (not against an intimate partner). It also noted differences between groups. These were in terms of their demographic characteristics, risk factors identified by police, frequency of family violence perpetration and other offending behaviour.
• We have begun a review of the actions needed to achieve the outcomes in the perpetrator domain of the Family Violence Outcomes Framework and to identify potential additional measures. This review will support the design and delivery of more effective perpetrator interventions to promote positive behaviour change and accountability.
• We have commenced a long-term program of work to develop and implement outcomes measurement for funded family violence programs. Services for people using violence, and family violence therapeutic interventions, are being used to develop, test and trial a beginning suite of program outcomes measurement. We have also started planning for a core set of outcomes questions for perpetrator case management, Men's Behaviour Change Programs and post-participation follow up. These will build on questions developed as part of evaluation of case management and cohort trials.

Activities delivered under this priority area focus on working with perpetrators with the intent to increase the safety of victim survivors. Activities such as Operation Ribbon and the Victoria Police specialist Family Violence Investigation Units actively engage with both perpetrators but also high-risk victim survivors. These activities have a focus on monitoring safety. They contribute to our ability to intervene early and to prevent escalation to keep victim survivors safe and to reduce harm from family violence.

We will continue to work with perpetrators and people who use violence to change their understanding of family violence, their attitudes and ultimately support them to hold themselves accountable. This type of behaviour change requires significant commitment both from the perpetrator and the support services. There is no single activity or intervention that will work for all individuals. Our activities in this priority area use different models, approaches and programs (such as Men’s Behaviour Change Programs and individual case management approach). We also continue to research and pilot new approaches (such as the Integrated Counselling and Case Management pilot and research into peer navigation models). We provide perpetrators with different ways to engage. This creates opportunities to help them hold themselves to account for their behaviour, which ultimately contributes to a reduction in family violence behaviours.

Building our evidence base and understanding of who we are working with supports us in the development of a family violence system that is person-centred and responsive. The implementation of the MARAM Framework and training supports a strengthened workforce and improves service delivery. It supports improved family violence and child information sharing arrangements. It also supports processes and practices that create a more integrated family violence system. This addresses the needs of perpetrators and people who use violence.