An 11-year analysis of family violence court data shows police are becoming more involved in the intervention process in Whittlesea and Hume.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released its 2013 Directory of Family and Domestic Violence Statistics on October 3, which included an 11-year trend analysis from the Victorian family violence database from 1999 to 2010.
The database includes a breakdown of court data and intervention order applications by local government area over the 11 years. The court data shows the number of instances where police applied for the intervention orders on behalf of individuals affected by family violence multiplied by eight in Hume and quadrupled from 1999-2000 to 2009-10.
Affected family members, a person with the written consent of the family, a court-appointed applicant or the guardian of the affected individual can apply for intervention orders.
Whittlesea acting sergeant Clare Hayhoe, family violence adviser to the North West Metro Division 5, said it was good to see that more people were reporting incidents to police.
Overall, the trend breakdown shows there were 467 people affected by family violence who finalised an application for an intervention order in Whittlesea in 1999-2000. The number increased to a top of 904 in 2007-08 and remained there in the latest set of data from 2009-10.
In Hume, the trend breakdown shows there were 570 people affected by family violence who finalised an application for an intervention order in 1999-2000. This increased to a top of 2003 in the latest set of data from 2009-10.
The number of family violence incidents reported to police has almost doubled in the past five years. In 2012-13, there were 2110 family violence incidents in Whittlesea reported to police. Whittlesea health access and bushfire recovery manager Neville Kurth said the council had committed to preventing family violence through the endorsement of its 2011-2016 strategy, Building a Respectful Community – Preventing Violence against Women.
The most recent family violence data from Victoria Police shows the rate of family violence in Whittlesea is 1249 per 100,000 and 1429.5 per 100,000 in Hume compared to the state average of 1071 per 100,000.
