By Heather Wolbers, Hayley Boxall and Anthony Morgan

Drawing on a large sample of female carers living in Australia (n=3,775), this study aims to document and explore children and young people’s experiences of abuse in the past 12 months. We focus on children’s exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated against their female carers, as well as children being the target of direct physical and emotional abuse themselves.

Overall, a significant proportion of respondents who had a child in their care during the past 12 months said that a child was exposed to IPV perpetrated against them (14.1%). One in nine said a child in their care had been the target of direct abuse perpetrated by their current or most recent former partner (11.5%). Critically, one-third of respondents who experienced IPV said a child was exposed to the violence at least once in the past 12 months (34.8%).

A number of factors were associated with an increased likelihood of children being subjected to direct abuse. These included the characteristics of respondents and their relationships, children and households. We also present evidence linking economic factors, including changes in employment, with the direct abuse of children.

Research Report no. 26. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2023. 72p.

By Hayley Boxall, Samantha Lyneham, Christie Black and Alexandra Gannoni

Sexual exploitation can have significant short- and longer-term impacts on victim-survivors. However, there is currently a lack of research exploring the support needs of sexual exploitation victim-survivors accessing support in Australia, and barriers to support provision. To address this knowledge gap, we analysed case management records for 50 victim-survivors of sexual exploitation in Australia and conducted interviews with 12 victim-survivor caseworkers.

On average, victim-survivors required support across six domains, the most common being financial hardship, mental health, social isolation and housing and accommodation. The most crucial barriers to service provision were systemic in nature. For example, some victim‑survivors on temporary visas were ineligible for government funded medical services, affordable housing or welfare schemes, which placed significant financial burdens on victim‑survivors and support services.

These findings demonstrate that to support the recovery of victim-survivors, services need to be funded appropriately to ensure they can provide holistic wraparound interventions.

Research Report no. 29. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2023. 51p.

By Victoria Pedjasaar

In the EU, a third of women over the age of 15 have experienced physical or sexual violence and over half have been sexually harassed. According to a study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), just 13% of women reported their most serious incident of non-partner violence to the authorities. Gender-based violence can occur in various situations and circumstances. According to an EU-wide survey report, 32% of perpetrators of sexual harassment in the EU come from the employment context. Although often overlooked, the majority of (workplace) violence takes place in the healthcare sector as healthcare professionals are 16 times more at risk of violence in comparison to other occupations. Violence does not only manifest in abusive behaviour toward workers on duty but can also be perpetrated on women as receivers of healthcare. High rates of violence in healthcare, brought on and exacerbated by gender stereotypes and inequality, point to dysfunctional health systems. This Paper is divided into the following chapters and provides policy recommendations on the way forward for the EU member states: 1. Gender-based violence against healthcare workers. 2. Obstetric and gynaecological violence against women. 3. Gender-based violence is a story of gender inequality. 4. Legislation and policies that protect women.

Brussels, Belgium: European Policy Centre, 2023. 12p.

By Savannah Minihan, Melanie Burton, Mariesa Nicholas, Kylie Trengove, Sarah Napier and Rick Brown

This study examines the prevalence of requests for facilitated child sexual exploitation (CSE) online. Of 4,011 Australians surveyed, 2.8 percent had received a request for facilitated CSE in the past year. Requests for facilitated CSE were significantly higher among those who had shared a photo of or information about children publicly online. Among respondents who had shared publicly, requests for facilitated CSE were significantly higher among men, younger individuals, linguistically diverse individuals, individuals with disability, and those who had experienced other sexual or violent harms online. The results highlight the need for increased awareness of the potential harms of posting photos of and information about children publicly online, and place onus on platforms to warn users of these potential harms.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 692. . Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2024.

Edited by  Sharon Lamb 

It is increasingly difficult to use the word "victim" these days without facing either ridicule for "crying victim" or criticism for supposed harshness toward those traumatized. Some deny the possibility of "recovering" repressed memories of abuse, or consider date rape an invention of whining college students. At the opposite extreme, others contend that women who experience abuse are "survivors" likely destined to be psychically wounded for life.
While the debates rage between victims' rights advocates and "backlash" authors, the contributors to New Versions of Victims collectively argue that we must move beyond these polarizations to examine the "victim" as a socially constructed term and to explore, in nuanced terms, why we see victims the way we do.
Must one have been subject to extreme or prolonged suffering to merit designation as a victim? How are we to explain rape victims who seemingly "get over" their experience with no lingering emotional scars? Resisting the reductive oversimplifications of the polemicists, the contributors to New Versions of Victims critique exaggerated claims by victim advocates about the harm of victimization while simultaneously taking on the reactionary boilerplate of writers such as Katie Roiphe and Camille Paglia and offering further strategies for countering the backlash.
Written in clear, accessible language, New Versions of Victims offers a critical analysis of popular debates about victimization that will be applicable to both practice and theory.

New York; London: NYU Press, 1999. 192p.

By Michelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer

Michelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer don’t write for news magazines or prime-time investigative television shows, but the stories they tell hold the same fascination. When Mothers Kill is compelling. In a clear, direct fashion the authors recount what they have learned from interviewing women imprisoned for killing their children. Readers will be shocked and outraged—as much by the violence the women have endured in their own lives as by the violence they engaged in—but they will also be informed and even enlightened.
Oberman and Meyer are leading authorities on their subject. Their 2001 book, Mothers Who Kill Their Children, drew from hundreds of newspaper articles as well as from medical and social science journals to propose a comprehensive typology of maternal filicide. In that same year, driven by a desire to test their typology—and to better understand child-killing women not just as types but as individuals—Oberman and Meyer began interviewing women who had been incarcerated for the crime. After conducting lengthy, face-to-face interviews with forty prison inmates, they returned and selected eight women to speak with at even greater length. This new book begins with these stories, recounted in the matter-of-fact words of the inmates themselves.
There are collective themes that emerge from these individual accounts, including histories of relentless interpersonal violence, troubled relationships with parents (particularly with mothers), twisted notions of romantic love, and deep conflicts about motherhood. These themes structure the books overall narrative, which also includes an insightful examination of the social and institutional systems that have failed these women. Neither the mothers nor the authors offer these stories as excuses for these crimes.

New York; London: NYU Press, 2008. 208p.

By Claire Bevan, Jane Lloyd, Hannah McGlade

This document presents a review of the Australian literature on missing, murdered and incarcerated Indigenous women in Australia. The review was conducted by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) to support seven Indigenous-led communiques into missing, murdered and incarcerated Indigenous women.

The Indigenous women included in the communiques were incarcerated as a result of self-defense against violence that would have otherwise led to their disappearance or murder.

The communiques are being led by Associate Professor Hannah McGlade, member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

The purpose of the communiques is to demonstrate Australia’s obligation as a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) by drawing on seven cases of Indigenous women who have disappeared, been murdered or wrongfully incarcerated in the last 3 decades (since 1997).

Sydney: Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), 2024.

By Christine Army and Karim H. Vellani

In 2020, Anthony Chamberlain called a prostitute to visit him at a motel where he was a guest. The prostitute, along with her boyfriend, arrived at the motel where they robbed and killed Chamberlain in his motel room. In 2021, Miguel Gomez met his longtime drug dealer in the parking lot of an expensive, high rise apartment building. Unlike the many other times when they met at other locations, this time a dispute ensued, and the drug dealer shot and killed Gomez. In 2022, gang member Jamil Wright went to a mall to buy a suit for a friend’s funeral. The friend had been murdered by a rival gang resulting from a long-term dispute over territory. While walking in the shopping mall, Wright passed a member of the rival gang. The rival gang member went to his car, retrieved a handgun, and killed Wright in the mall’s food court. Each of the victims above were engaged in a risky behavior. Chamberlain was engaged in illicit sexual activities. Gomez was buying illegal narcotics. Wright was a self-identified gang member. From a prevention perspective, it is useful to understand the factors that increase one’s risk of violent victimization and how Handlers (discussed below) can help at-risk individuals reduce their risks. Research studies, including those summarized in the Appendix, largely focus attention on the factors associated with increased risk of victimization. These studies have consistently found that engaging in risky behaviors increases one’s chance of becoming a victim of violence. The most prominent theoretical developments in the area of victimization are the Routine Activity Theory and the Lifestyle Perspective. Both theories address how context or situation influences vulnerability to violence.

International Association of Professional Security Consultants 2023. 33p.

By Steve Pickering, Han Dorussen, Martin Ejnar Hansen, Jason Reifler, Thomas Scotto, Yosuke Sunahara, et al.

Following a series of high-profile incidents of violence against women by serving London Metropolitan Police Officers, questions of standards and the public’s confidence in policing are in the spotlight. Over a fifteen-month period between July 2022 and September 2023 using monthly surveys of representative English samples, this study confirms that women, in general, are more trusting in the police than men. This, however, does not hold true in London. Out of nine regions in England, London is the only region where women’s overall trust in the police is lower than men. Lower levels of trust in the police among women in London hold when controls for age, income, political environment and crime levels are considered. In line with existing literature that considers women being more sensitive to cues about trustworthiness, the concerning incidents of sexual violence by police officers against women are likely to further erode trust in police in the capital, which already ranks last among England’s nine regions in citizen trust of the police.

Policing and Society, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2024.2334009

By Darby M. Steiger, Westat Mike Brick, Andrea Sedlak, David Finkelhor, Heather Turner, Sherry Hamby

The National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) obtains information about children’s exposure to a broad spectrum of crimes, abuse, and neglect, including witnessing violence and crime. This comprehensive, multi-topic assessment model has yielded insights widely viewed as major advances in the field, such as the recognition of highly vulnerable “poly-victims” who are targeted in multiple ways by multiple perpetrators and whose experiences are distinctive in dynamics and impact. NatSCEV findings have provided policymakers both nationally and internationally with tools to reduce children’s exposure to violence, efforts such as the Defending Childhood Initiative led by Attorney General Eric Holder, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Adverse Childhood Experiences initiative, the U.N. Secretary General’s Special Representative on Violence Against Children, and UNICEF’s Cure Violence International. While recognizing these achievements, after three NatSCEV cycles, the study design and methodology warranted reassessment. One of the reasons for this change was because response rates have seriously declined over NatSCEV cycles, decreasing from 79 percent of eligible respondents in 2003 to rates as low as 10 percent for some components of the sample in 2014. To improve future NatSCEV response rates, Westat and the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire collaborated with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to consider a range of design options, such as by using online questionnaire and internet panels. This report reflects our comprehensive efforts to review and assess NatSCEV and recommend revised approaches. Chapter 2 presents a brief background on the development of NatSCEV and its primary achievements. Chapter 3 and the related appendix present a review of the literature on gathering sensitive information about children’s victimizations, including whether and under what conditions it may be harmful to children to ask about violence exposure; what procedures minimize risk of participation; what is involved in obtaining informed consent, particularly in a self-administered mode; and how to maximize data validity and minimize social desirability bias and reporting errors. Previous versions of NatSCEV were lengthy and so need to be shortened to reduce respondent burden and enhance response rates, especially in the context of a move to self-administration. The redesign work identified ways to substantially reduce the length without sacrificing critical content, as well as ensuring the content is developmentally appropriate. As such, Chapter 4 and its appendix present a conceptual mapping of the current Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ) items. To ensure that NatSCEV is providing valid measures of the concepts it intends to assess, Chapter 5 and its appendix examine the performance of prior JVQ items against scales such as the trauma scale. Chapter 6 presents the results of the cognitive interviews with revised questions. Based on these findings, Chapter 7 presents a revised draft of the JVQ. Chapter 8 provides three possible designs for a future NatSCEV: one that turns the NatSCEV into a supplementary collection of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), one based on a mixed online and face-to-face administration, and one based on a representative online panel.

Washington, DC: Westat, 2024. 338p.

By: Felix Reer, Ruth Wendt, and Thorsten Quandt

Several cross-sectional studies have shown that online sexual engagement (OSE) in the form of sexting or sexy self-presentation on social media is associated with an increased risk of experiencing negative consequences, such as online sexual victimization (OSV) or lower levels of psychosocial well-being. However, representative and longitudinal studies are scarce. The current study follows three research goals: (1) examining the prevalence of OSE and OSV among a random-quota sample of 1,019 German Internet users aged 14–64 years, (2) examining gender and age-related differences in OSE and OSV, and (3) examining the longitudinal relationships between OSE, OSV, and psychosocial well-being over a period of 1 year. Our results indicate that OSE and OSV are relatively widespread: 17.7% of the participants had already experienced OSV, 25.3% indicated that they had presented themselves online in a sexualized manner at least once in the past 2 months, and 22.7% showed a certain willingness to engage in sexting. We found higher rates among the younger participants. However, to a certain degree, older individuals were also affected. Male participants showed higher sexting willingness and more often presented themselves in a sexualized manner than females, whereas only small differences related to OSV were found. Concerning relationships with psychosocial well-being, our cross-sectional results showed that OSE, OSV, and mental problems are intercorrelated. Furthermore, we detected a significant long-term relationship between higher sexting willingness at time 1 and more victimization experienced 1 year later, whereas no significant longitudinal associations with lower levels of psychosocial well-being were identified.

Front. Psychol., 07 December 2021

By Garth Morgan, et al.

First Nations children experience high rates of domestic and family violence and are overrepresented in child protection systems in Australia. The long history of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that commenced with colonisation, the effects of which are still being felt today, significantly contributes to these outcomes. Policies intended to respond to these harms, improve wellbeing, and enhance safety, instead continue to cause harm, rarely providing culturally safe, well-resourced and trauma informed solutions.

This is the second of two reports from the project, Service system responses and culturally designed practice frameworks to address the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children exposed to domestic and family violence. The project used culturally safe, participatory action research methods with First Nations community members in eight regional and remote locations across Queensland to generate new knowledge about what works for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who have both experienced domestic and family violence and had contact with the child protection system. The first report from this project, New ways for our families explored existing literature and presented the findings from the first action research cycles. The final report, You can’t pour from an empty cup presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations from the final rounds of action research.

Significantly, the researchers found that experiencing domestic and family violence negatively impacted childhoods, behaviours and the ability to form healthy relationships as adults. Harms were carried forward into adulthood as these children and young people became parents and moved through systems. As a result many experienced child protection responses that used oppressive and controlling techniques and this increased distress. Research participants identified that there was a lack of focus on providing healing and support services for children and young people who experienced DFV and that service providers were often ill equipped to respond effectively to trauma.

This research provides an understanding of how services and systems including health and education can better hear from and respond to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people who experience domestic and family violence. While conducting the research, and as a result of the initial findings which revealed the depth of cultural knowledge and community led solutions, the research team made the decision to also develop a culturally strong practice framework to guide policymakers and practitioners. The framework, Healing our children and young people: A framework to address the impacts of domestic and family violence is available on the ANROWS website.

ANROWS, 2023. 103p.

By Sana Rehman, Memona Habib, and Saad Bin Tahir

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against men has become a serious and widespread public health issue, but limited research about the occurrence of female-to-male violence is available, as most studies on the subject have focused on female victims only. The study aims to determine the pooled prevalence and predictors of physical, emotional, and sexual violence against men across all recall periods and the potential risk factors of male victimization. Databases of PubMed, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Scopus, Google Scholar, Science Direct, EMBASE, and JSTOR were searched. Data were extracted from studies published in 2010 to 2022. A systematic review and Random effect meta-analyses for the pooled prevalence were performed. Thirty studies with 58,357 participants were included in the final analysis. The pooled prevalence of Physical IPV was 20% (95% CI: 11–28%), Psychological IPV was 44% (95% CI: 30–59%), and Sexual IPV was 7% (95% CI: 3.1–10%) in Victimization for all recall periods, respectively. Findings demonstrated psychological IPV as the most prevalent form of IPV among men, which suggests that effective attempts are required to develop related prevention programs for victims. Furthermore, gender, age, substance abuse, socioeconomic status, multiple sex partners, history of abuse, and childhood victimization were found to be the predictors of IPV among men. Implementations of policies are also needed to reduce IPV. The findings of the study were discussed in terms of counselling and interventions.

Violence and Gender: Volume: 10 Issue 4: December 8, 2023

By Lis Bates and Marianne Hester

This paper assesses the design and use of protection orders for domestic violence in England and Wales. It draws on data from 400 police classified domestic violence incidents and 65 interviews with victims/survivors, as well as new analysis of government justice data from England and Wales, to address a gap in literature on protection orders.

The paper identifies an increasing civil-criminal ‘hybridisation’ of protection orders in England and Wales, and argues that a dual regime has developed, with orders issued by police and/or in criminal proceedings increasingly privileged (and enforced) over victim-led civil orders. Whilst protection orders are being used – as intended – flexibly to protect domestic violence victims, the way they are applied in practice risks downgrading domestic violence in criminal justice terms.

The conclusions are especially timely in light of current Government proposals to rationalise protection orders by introducing a single overarching Domestic Abuse Protection Order in England and Wales.

Bristol, UK: Centre for Gender and Violence Research University of Bristol , 2020. 41p.

By Ana Speed and Kayliegh Richardson

Occupation orders are the dedicated legal remedy through which victims of domestic abuse can be supported to remain in the family home following a relationship breakdown. Case law indicates, however, that victims experience barriers to securing orders due to the high threshold criteria and because concerns about protecting the rights of perpetrators has led to judicial reluctance to grant extensive protection to victims. The options for providing protection to victims of abuse in respect of the family home are shortly set to be reformed by the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, which creates a new Domestic Abuse Protection Order (DAPO). It is anticipated that DAPOs will be easier to secure because they will have a lower threshold criteria, they will be available in family, civil and criminal proceedings, and both victims and third parties will be able to make an application thereby alleviating the burden on victims who feel unable to take any action. Whilst there is no intention at this point to repeal occupation orders, the Home Office has acknowledged that ‘DAPOs will become the ‘go to’ protective order in cases of domestic abuse’ suggesting that occupation orders will be replaced by DAPOs in most cases.

By drawing on data obtained from an analysis of court statistics, a questionnaire of legal practitioners and domestic abuse specialists, and in-depth interviews with victims of domestic abuse, this paper offers original empirical insights into where the current law fails victims of domestic abuse. The analysis reveals three key barriers to securing occupation orders. Firstly, despite the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 making efforts to preserve legal aid for victims of domestic abuse, the means test is difficult for victims to satisfy, resulting in increases both to the number of victims taking no action to pursue protection and who act as litigants in person in occupation order proceedings. Secondly, the prospects of a victim securing protection can be adversely affected by their unrepresented status. Thirdly, despite case law indicating a less restrictive approach to granting occupation orders, many victims continue to struggle to satisfy the strict threshold criteria. Some judges are seemingly willing to bypass this by granting alternative remedies which may offer victims a weaker form of protection in respect of the family home. Where orders are granted, the data suggest this is on restricted terms and for limited durations which reduce their effectiveness at preventing post-separation abuse and supporting victims to regulate their short and longer-term housing situation. These empirical findings are then situated within a discussion of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The authors analyse whether forthcoming DAPOs are likely to offer a more accessible and effective form of protection than occupation orders. The analysis suggests that by increasing the scope of applicants, the breadth and flexibility of available protection and the sanctions for breach, DAPOs have the potential to remedy many of the existing barriers to securing protection over the family home. As is always the case with new legislation however, the key will be in its implementation, to ensure that existing issues are not simply transferred across to the new regime. The findings are novel because academic commentaries on protective injunctions typically focus on ‘personal protection’ offered by non-molestation orders, domestic violence protection orders, and restraining orders, meaning that both occupation orders and protection for victims in respect of the family home are under-researched areas of domestic abuse.

Journal of Criminal Law Volume 86, Issue 3 Jun 2022 Pages 145-220

By Georgina Heydon, Nicola Henry, Rachel Loney-Howes and Sophie Hind

Anonymous reporting tools for sexual assault contribute to gathering intelligence, reducing crime, increasing reporting and supporting survivors. This article examines victim-survivors’ knowledge of and experiences using alternative reporting options, drawing on data collected from a broader study of alternative reporting options for sexual assault. Focus groups with victim-survivors and interviews with support service staff reveal that survivors and support staff are unclear about how authorities use data from alternative reporting tools but can identify preferred designs for a form. Victim-survivors in particular strongly support having an alternative reporting option available.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 678. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2023. 17p.

By Ben Mathews, Nina Papalia, Sarah Napier, Eva Malacova, David Lawrence, Daryl J Higgins, Hannah Thomas, Holly Erskine, Franziska Meinck, Divna Haslam, James Scott, David Finkelhor and Rosana Pacella

Few studies have examined associations between child maltreatment and criminal justice system involvement using large nationally representative samples and comprehensive measures of self‑reported maltreatment. This study analyses nationally representative data from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study, which surveyed 8,500 Australians to obtain self-reported data on all five child maltreatment types (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence) and criminal justice system involvement. We examine associations between self-reported child maltreatment, and chronic multi-type maltreatment, and arrests, convictions and imprisonment. Results show moderate associations between child maltreatment and arrests and convictions, and between maltreatment and imprisonment among men. Stronger associations were found for those experiencing three or more types of maltreatment.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 681. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2023. 21p

By Susan Baidawi, Rubini Ball, Rosemary Sheehan and Nina Papalia

This paper outlines a retrospective follow-up study of all Victorian children aged 10 to 13 years with police contact for alleged offending in 2017 (N=1,369). The sample comprised relatively few 10- and 11-year-olds, while boys and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were over-represented. Most alleged offending was non-violent (71%), particularly among 10-year-olds (82%). Most matters did not proceed to court (80%), including 55 percent of matters which received police cautions. Of matters proceeding to court, 37 percent were struck out or dismissed, and a further 53 percent had outcomes not involving youth justice supervision. Half of children (49%) had no alleged offending in the following two years.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 679. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2024. 21p

By James Ogilvie, Lisa Thomsen, Jodie Barton, et L.

This is the second and final report to be produced from the “Adverse childhood experiences and the intergenerational transmission of domestic and family violence in young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviour and violence against women” project.

Building on work completed in the first report which analysed a small subset of cases, the authors have used two large existing datasets that coded information relating to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) for male youth in Queensland who had committed an offence. The two data sets were Queensland Youth Justice records of proven offences (n=6,047) and clinical information maintained by Griffith Youth Forensic Services (GYFS) relating to young men who had been referred to services after perpetrating sexual offences (n=377). The analysis outlined the prevalence of specific ACEs by offence type (YJ dataset) and contrasted the prevalence of ACEs across male youth with and without histories of DFV (GYFS dataset); descriptive presentation ; descriptive analysis of group differences (sexual vs. non-sexual offending); and multivariate models to examine links between DFV and offending.

The report found that across both datasets, ACES were highly prevalent among young men who went on to commit sexual offences. They were also more likely to have experienced co-occurring ACEs. Young men who had been adjudicated for sexual offences were especially likely to have experienced DFV as children.

These findings provide an evidence base for designing program and policy responses for young men who have encountered the youth justice system.

These findings indicate that ACEs occur within a context of gender-based violence. Policy responses drawing on this evidence should prioritise early intervention and promote protective factors applied within a trauma and DFV informed practice framework.

Sydney: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited (ANROWS), 2022. 64p

By Betty Luu, Amy Conley Wright, Stefanie Schurer, Laura Metcalfe

In a data first, this ANROWS report, released in partnership with researchers from the University of Sydney, highlights approximately 33% of all reports to NSW’s Child Protection Helpline express concerns about a child experiencing domestic and family violence, either alone or in conjunction with parental mental health and or substance use issues.

The research uses the newly established NSW Human Services Dataset to see how families interact with a range of services, including police, child protection and health, over time. The analysis focuses on cases reported to the NSW Child Protection Helpline, unveiling the challenges families experience with domestic and family violence, alongside parental mental health or parental substance use issues.

The findings also confirm that domestic and family violence, parental substance use and parental mental health issues are strongly interlinked and contribute to children being placed in out-of-home care, with findings suggesting that the odds of a child being removed double when all three issues are present.

Sydney, Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), 2024.89P.