Adolescent violence in the home (AVITH) describes a range of violent, abusive and intimidating behaviours used by young people against family members, most commonly parents and siblings. It is increasingly recognised as a critical issue of concern for many families in Australia.

While prior research has drawn attention to the urgent need to better understand the complexity and diversity of AVITH, there remain significant knowledge gaps.

This report presents findings from Stage 1 of a larger project entitled Building a framework to prevent and respond to young people with disability who use violence at home, which aims to use multidisciplinary bodies of knowledge, and input from families, to develop a conceptual framework that examines and explains the intersection of AVITH, gender and disability.

In this report, the researchers found a distinct lack of research overall and the absence of research that considers disability differently to its construction as an individual-level risk marker for AVITH. This individual attribute approach to disability does not align with Australia’s international obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) or with Australian legislation, policy and planning frameworks in disability, including Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2023.