Seven ‘types’ of family violence perpetrators

Seven distinct ‘types’ of family violence perpetrators can be identified using police records, research released today by the Crime Statistics Agency shows. 

Among the groups identified were 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). The study found there were notable differences between groups in terms of their demographic characteristics, risk factors identified by police, frequency of family violence perpetration and other offending behaviour. Two groups of prolific family violence perpetrators were identified, with these perpetrators the most likely to also perpetrate violence against non-family members, the most likely to be substance affected at the time of the incident, and the most likely to be unemployed.

The study includes all family violence perpetrators who were recorded by police as perpetrating at least one incident between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017.

View and download the paper Finding typologies of family violence perpetrators using police records