Family Violence Workers Claim Victim-Survivors Are Wrongly Labeled as Offenders by Victoria Police

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Family violence advocates are deeply worried about the mislabeling of victims as aggressors by law enforcement, as well as the downplaying of abuse and discrimination against disadvantaged groups. This alarm comes from a survey of 225 front-line family violence professionals in Victoria, including support workers and legal experts.

They also reported cases of police minimising violence, colluding with perpetrators, avoiding accountability and “institutionally protecting” officers who committed abuse.

Conducted in 2020/21, the survey outcomes were published by Flat Out Inc, a group advocating for women and gender-diverse individuals affected by the justice system. The findings reveal that Victoria Police’s handling of domestic violence issues can sometimes harm victims further or mirror the controlling behaviors characteristic of abuse.

Aboriginal and migrant women ‘overwhelmingly’ being misidentified as perpetrators

Peta Malins, senior lecturer in criminology and justice studies at RMIT and the report’s co-author, said the testimony from family violence workers was a “significant indictment of Victoria Police and their role in family violence response across this state”.

Lauren Caulfield, another one of the report’s co-authors, said family violence workers had witnessed “huge rates” of police bias and discrimination, including racial targeting.

In the survey, a staggering 90% of participants reported observing police bias or discrimination, and 83% noted cases where police wrongly identified the victim as the offender. Many respondents highlighted that police disproportionately “target and discriminate” against Indigenous Australians, migrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, and other marginalized communities.

“There are very particular people who are being disbelieved by police, and rather than receiving support and assistance, they’re actually being identified as perpetrators. They’re being targeted and they’re being criminalised in the course of police responses to family violence,” Caulfield said.

According to Caulfield, the research clearly indicates that misidentification issues predominantly impact Aboriginal, migrant, and refugee women. Over half of the surveyed professionals reported scenarios where the individual committing family violence was a police officer, with many encountering such situations multiple times.

Report authors call for move away from police in family violence responses

Family violence sector workers are in a unique position to observe police practices by witnessing them firsthand and through the experience of people they support, she said, adding the harms “are not standalone mistakes or failures”.

The authors called for a move away from policing and towards investment in community-led family violence responses.

“In this case, the harm is so sweeping, it is so widespread, that we’re really calling for a fundamental rethink of the role of police in the family violence service system,” Caulfield said.

A Victoria Police spokesperson said the force was not involved in the research and noted it was conducted in 2020/21.

They said police work closely with sector-wide partners and regularly engage with support groups and professionals to strengthen their response to family violence.

“The safety of victims is at the forefront of everything we do,” they said.

All police receive extensive family violence training, including how to identify predominant aggressors, and more than 90 per cent of officers had completed Aboriginal cultural awareness training, the spokesperson said.

“We know it’s especially difficult for victim-survivors to come forward when their perpetrator is a police officer,” they said.

“That’s why we created a team specifically tasked with tackling this issue, skilled in supporting victims and understanding the tactics police perpetrators use.”

About one in four Australian women has experienced family violence involving an intimate partner, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data.

— With reporting by Cam Gooley

If you or someone you know is impacted by family and domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.