General News
4 June, 2024
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: TOO CLOSE TO HOME Rising stats sending bittersweet message
Victoria Police Western Regional Division Four family violence training officer Senior Sergeant Simone Field says it's hard to comment on family violence as a “problem” in the Wimmera and that the increase in reported incidents isn't necessarily as negative as it seems at first glance.
Close to 600 reports were made in Horsham in the 2022-23 period, with the figure increasing by 13.5 per cent from 2021-22.
A further 123 family violence reports were made in Yarriambiack - up 26.8 per cent on the previous year.
“We know our reports are increasing - that's in line with the rest of the state,” Sen Sgt Field said.
“That's reassuring in a way because it means the community has confidence that what they are reporting will be recorded, and that our reporting processes are better and more streamlined.
“Every time we do a risk assessment that's a family violence report, so that’s increasing our numbers.
“I don’t want to call it a ‘problem’ - I want to call it community confidence.
"It’s the police doing their job.”
Sen Sgt Field said she believed family violence happened in rural areas at the same rate as in metropolitan areas but it took people in the county longer to make a report because they knew everyone around them.
“People are ashamed or scared to come forward because they aren’t going to leave the area they live in, they aren’t going to take their children out of school, so coming forward is a real risk to them - particularly in instances of gendered-nature violence,” she said.
“Yes, men are victims of family violence but, overwhelmingly, women are our affected family members."
Figures from the Crime Statistics Agency show that from July 2021 to June 2022 73 per cent of Victorians who were reported as perpetrators of family violence were male, while 71 per cent of people who had family violence perpetrated against them were female and 61 per cent of children who had family violence perpetrated against them were girls.
“When men are respondents as well, there is a gendered-nature crime," Snr Sgt Field said.
"We have to accept that and own that as a community and assist our women and children in coming forward.
“I can take comfort in the fact that our community feels safe enough to report family violence and know they will be believed.”
But Sen Sgt Field said this wasn't a sign that what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled “a national crisis” was getting better.
There have been four deaths in Victoria - three of those in Ballarat.
Eleven have died in New South Wales, six in Queensland and four in Western Australia.
Horsham is currently ranked as the sixth-worst local government area in Victoria for family violence incidents and Sen Sgt Field said the community needed to continue to stand up and believe women.
There also needed to be more funding for behaviour change programs for men and for more of those programs to be accessible in regional and rural areas, she said.
Safe and Equal chief executive Tania Farha said there were additional barriers for people experiencing family violence in regional and rural areas, compared to in cities.
"There are fewer services to access and the closest service in the area may be hours away," Ms Farha said.
"While the demand for specialist family violence services has increased exponentially across the state, regional and rural services are particularly impacted because of the wider geographic area they need to cover and the smaller workforce that exists in these regions.
"Many of these services are under-funded and under-resourced and extremely stretched."