Expressions of interest have opened to trial a new initiative targeting male perpetrators of family and domestic violence in Western Australia. Photo: Pranithan Chorruangsak.
A new initiative to strengthen earlier intervention and hold male perpetrators of family and domestic violence to account will be trialled in Western Australia.
The trial aims to prevent reoffending and improve victim-survivor safety through direct, targeted engagement with offenders after police call-outs to incidents.
Under the trial, new men’s workers will join five of WA’s Family and Domestic Violence Response Teams in Northam, Bunbury, Midland, Joondalup and Fremantle.
These new workers will work with male perpetrators of family violence to undertake risk assessment, case management and referrals to men’s behaviour change programs.
In 2022, WA recorded the highest number of victims of assault (38,743 victims) in 30 years. The majority of these assaults (64 per cent) were family and domestic violence related.
Intimate partners are responsible for almost 80 per cent of hospitalisations of women from family and domestic violence in WA, with 20 per cent of perpetrators being other family members.
WA Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Minister Sabine Winton said violence against partners or family members was unacceptable and perpetrators should always be held accountable.
“To stop the cycle, we need to work with perpetrators to have them take responsibility for their actions and seek help,” she said.
“By introducing this innovative perpetrator response into our Family and Domestic Violence Response Teams we are building and strengthening early engagement with perpetrators and improving information sharing and collaboration between agencies and family and domestic violence services.
“It is vital perpetrators are held to account through early intervention and supported to seek the help and strategies they need to change their behaviour.”
The $3.125 million initiative is funded by the Commonwealth Government through an extension to the National Partnership Agreement on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Responses 2021-2027.
Federal Social Services and Prevention of Family Violence Assistant Minister Justine Elliot said the Federal Government was committed to working with state and territory governments under the partnership.
“These programs are about early intervention and response, to support accountability and change the behaviour of those perpetrating violence and provide better support for families,” she said.
“To achieve our shared goal of ending violence against women and children in one generation, we need sustained collective action to address the drivers of gender-based violence.”
Federal Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth also noted the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-32 as a means of strengthening systems and services to hold people who choose violence to account.
“We are not only holding offenders accountable, but also improving the safety of women and children experiencing, or at risk of experiencing family, domestic, and sexual violence,” she said.
“We need to build the evidence base of what works to change perpetrator behaviour, because if we don’t actually address it, we are going to just see this cycle go over and over again.”
The WA trial is targeted to organisations already delivering specialist men’s intervention programs and with an existing agreement with the WA Department of Communities.
Eligible organisations can submit expressions of interest via Tenders WA until Sunday 5 November.
