Family violence is harmful behaviour that occurs when someone threatens or controls a family member through fear. It can include physical harm, sexual assault, emotional and economic abuse or pet abuse. It may also involve:
• unreasonably controlling a person by withholding money for reasonable living expenses where a person is dependent on them for financial support
• threatening to harm another family member or pet in order to intimidate
• racist taunts that inflict emotional harm
• preventing contact with other family members or friends in order to torment the person.

What is economic abuse?

Economic abuse is unreasonably controlling a person by withholding money for reasonable living expenses where a person is dependent on them for financial support. For example, economic abuse can involve:
• keeping or getting rid of a family member’s property without their permission or threatening to do so
• preventing access to joint financial assets
• coercing someone to sign a contract or other legal or financial document
• coercing someone to give up control of assets or income
• coercing someone to claim social security payments.

What is emotional or psychological abuse?

Emotional or psychological abuse is behaviour that torments, intimidates, harasses or is offensive to a person. It can include verbal abuse and racial taunts. It occurs most often in the form of humiliation, threats, insults, harassment or constant criticism.

It can also include preventing someone from contact with their family, friends or culture in order to torment or intimidate them.

What is physical abuse?

Physical abuse can include, punching, choking, hitting, pushing, shoving, throwing or smashing objects and damaging property. The threat of any of these can also be considered as abuse.

What is sexual abuse?

Sexual abuse can include unwelcome demands for sexual intercourse, threats of physical violence during sex, or forcing someone to have sex or perform sex acts they do not wish to perform.

What types of relationships do the new laws cover?

Under the new laws, the definition of family violence covers a range of family and family-like relationships, including:
• married couples
• couples in civil unions
• de facto couples
• same-sex relationships
• parents and children
• relatives including parents, children, grandparents and siblings
• relatives according to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander tradition or contemporary social practice
• people with a disability who are in a family-like relationship with their carer.

Who is affected by family violence?

Family violence can affect any Victorian, regardless of income level, race, culture, religion, ability or sexuality.

What is the effect of family violence?

Family violence has a devastating impact on those involved and the broader community.

Family violence:
• affects one in five Victorian women, with Indigenous women significantly more likely to be victims of violence than the general population
• is the leading contributor to death, disability and illness in Victorian women aged 15 to 44
• is responsible for more disease burden than high blood pressure, smoking and obesity
• is a factor in 52 percent of substantiated child protection cases
• affects all communities, with the cycle of violence often continuing from one generation to the next
• particularly affects pregnant women, with 36 per cent of women experiencing family violence while pregnant and 17 per cent of those women being pregnant when the violence started
• costs the Victorian economy around $2 billion annually.

How are children affected by family violence?

Family violence has harmful immediate and long-term effects on children. Even when children are not directly involved, simply witnessing an incident or having to clean up after an incident can have a great impact on them.

Family violence is a factor in 52 percent of substantiated child protection cases.
Some of the impacts on children who experience family violence can include:
• blaming themselves for the violence
• experiencing sleeping difficulties and nightmares
• regressing to an earlier stage of development, such as thumb sucking and bedwetting
• becoming anxious or fearful
• displaying aggressive or destructive behaviour
• starting to withdraw from people and social events
• having difficulties learning at school and socialising
• becoming a victim or perpetrator of bullying
• starting to show cruelty to animals
• experiencing stress-related illnesses, such as headache or stomach pain
• displaying speech difficulties, such as stuttering
• misusing drugs and alcohol (often in young adults)
• repeating their parent’s destructive behaviour in their adult relationships.

What is the Family Violence Protection Act 2008?

The Family Violence Protection Act 2008 introduces new laws that come into effect in December 2008. The new laws aim to:
• make Victorians safer from family violence
• prevent and reduce family violence in our community
• hold those responsible for family violence more accountable for their behaviour.

A copy of the Act is available for download.

What will the new laws mean for Victorians?

The Family Violence Protection Act 2008 will:
• broaden the definition of family violence so that it includes economic and emotional abuse, as well as other types of threatening and controlling behaviours
• expand the definition of ‘family’ to cover a range of family and family-like relationships
• give police more powers to respond more quickly and effectively to family violence
• make it easier for victims of family violence to change tenancy arrangements to enable them to remain in their homes if they wish
• improve the court system to encourage greater reporting from victims, including restricting respondents to family violence intervention orders who are self-represented from personally cross-examining their victims in court
• better protect vulnerable Victorians.

What else is the Victorian Government doing to prevent family violence?

The Victorian Government is committed to reducing family violence in the community.

In addition to the introduction of the new Family Violence Protection Act 2008, the Victorian Government has committed over $75 million since 2005 to address family violence, including:
• more immediate assistance to support victims 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• more resources and special training for police to better respond to family violence situations
• greater choice of housing options, with more support to help victims stay in their own homes
• police and courts taking a stronger approach towards perpetrators who use violence
• dedicated family violence specialists in several Magistrates’ Courts to provide more support to victims
• more emergency housing options for perpetrators removed from the family home and additional behaviour-change programs available to them
• a common risk assessment framework to gauge danger to women and children
• increased support for Indigenous family violence prevention programs
• establishment of Indigenous Healing and Time Out Centres

More information on what the Victorian Government is doing to prevent family violence is available on the Department of Planning and Community Development website.

The Victorian Government is also running a public awareness campaign (the 'ENOUGH' campaign) to raise awareness of Victoria’s new family violence laws and encourage those who are experiencing violence to seek help.

What is the role of the police under the new laws?

Under the new laws, police will be able to issue Family Violence Safety Notices to protect victims of family violence. These Notices will provide police with another tool to respond quickly and effectively to family violence after hours. Under the new laws, police are still able to apply for family violence intervention orders on behalf of victims.

Victoria Police also have guidelines, the Code of Practice for the Investigation of Family Violence, which outlines how police will respond to reports of family violence. The guidelines emphasise that all reports of family violence will be treated seriously by police.

What are police-issued Family Violence Safety Notices?

Family Violence Safety Notices can be made by a Sergeant of Police or a higher ranking officer.

Family Violence Safety Notices may contain conditions that are similar to family violence intervention orders including:
• prohibiting the respondent from committing family violence against the protected person
• excluding the respondent from the family home
• prohibiting the respondent from going near the protected person.

Family Violence Safety Notices will last for a maximum of 72 hours. They will then be brought before the court. The court will then decide whether ongoing protection is needed and, if so, a family violence intervention order may be made to ensure ongoing protection of the victim.

What improvements have been made to the court system?

Since 2005, Victoria’s justice system has introduced a range of policies and projects to address family violence and encourage greater reporting from victims. They include:
• the establishment of the Family Violence Court Division in the Magistrates’ Court to improve the court response to family violence, with specialist support workers, court staff, Magistrates and police prosecutors, as well as additional security and outreach services
• training of Magistrates' Court staff to more effectively recognise and respond to family violence
• specialist Family Violence Services at three court locations
• increased investment to Community Legal Centres to fund a network of dedicated family violence community lawyer positions
• new laws that make it easier for victims to give evidence (for example, by restricting perpetrators from cross-examining victims) and make perpetrators more accountable.

How do the new laws help victims to stay in their home?

The new laws support victims of family violence and their children to stay in their own homes if they wish, by requiring the perpetrator to leave the home in appropriate circumstances.

Under the new laws, it is easier for victims of family violence to change tenancy arrangements to enable them to remain in their homes. This will make it easier for victims to avoid the disruption, dislocation and uncertainty of trying to find new accommodation if they decide to seek protection from a violent family member.

More information is available on the Consumer Affairs website.

What is the 'ENOUGH' campaign?

The Victorian Government launched the 'ENOUGH' campaign on 7 December 2008 to raise awareness of Victoria’s new family violence laws and encourage those who are experiencing violence to seek help.

The campaign will run until June 2009 and includes a range of activity, such as:
• radio, print, outdoor and online advertising
• media relations
• social media.

Check out the news section for the latest information on the campaign.

How can I support the campaign?

You can raise awareness by spreading the word among your networks that Victoria has new laws and a better system to protect all Victorians from family violence.

Keep visiting this site for new information about the campaign.

Are you happy? Warning signs

The Domestic Violence Crisis Service has provided a 'Warning signs' quiz and a'Warning signs' quiz for women with disabilities to help you identify abuse. This list is not exhaustive and there are a number of services that can help you. Please visit where to go for help for more information.

Where do I go for help and more information?

If you, or someone you know, are experiencing family violence, there are a range of free services and support available. See the where to go for help section for more information.

In an emergency, always call 000 for help.

Family Violence - Victoria has had enough