Crime Statistics Agency Releases Adolescent Family Violence Report

This report investigates adolescent perpetrators who have remained largely absent from discussions surrounding domestic and family violence.

Key findings were:

• Adolescent family violence (AFV) accounts for less than ten percent of police reported family violence incidents occurring in Victoria, but the number of AFV incidents recorded increased 11.8% over the past five years.
• Compared with adults, incidents involving adolescents were less likely to involve drug or alcohol use but were more likely to involve primary aggressor mental health problems or suicidality.
• Adolescent partner violence was more likely than adult partner violence to involve criminal offences (excluding breach of order offences) and nearly ten times more likely to involve sexual violence.
• Nearly half of fathers who were a victim-survivor of an AFV incident had a history as an aggressor of family violence.

The full report is available from the Crime Statistics Agency (Victoria) website.