The use of domestic and family violence perpetrator interventions in sentencing: A national statement

A key outcome of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children is that perpetrators stop their violence and are held to account. A major pathway to achieving this outcome is the effective use of interventions with perpetrators of violence against women. In recent years, Australian States and Territories have moved towards increased use of perpetrator interventions in response to domestic and family violence as a way of holding perpetrators to account with the aim of stopping violence.

This statement draws from the findings of the ANROWS Project - Perpetrator Interventions in Australia: A national study of judicial views and sentencing practice for domestic violence offenders (Fitz-Gibbon et al, 2020).

The project aimed to understand judicial views, understandings and practices in relation to perpetrator interventions and how these views may influence overall systemic perpetrator accountability.

The project focused on three types of perpetrator interventions that are available to courts to address DFV, namely:

Sentencing for DFV related offences;

Family Violence Intervention Orders (FVIOs); and

Perpetrator intervention programs, including voluntary or mandated

behaviour change programs and other offender programs, case management and clinical services targeting DFV perpetrators.