This report has been produced in response to the limited data and knowledge available on the perpetration of domestic, family, and sexual violence. The absence of robust and consistent information on perpetration limits our ability to effectively prevent and reduce this violence.

Data collection on domestic, family, and sexual violence should include deliberate attention to perpetration – to the prevalence and character of violence perpetration, including its gendered and intersectional dynamics. Little is known about violence perpetration in Australia. National, population-based data on perpetration are a vital tool for violence prevention and reduction. Without consistent, comparable and regularly captured data on perpetration, we are unable to be guided by evidence, to target interventions effectively to prevent and reduce perpetration, or to benchmark and measure the efficacy of our efforts.

The authors of this report argue that it is time to reframe the problems of domestic, family, and sexual violence to make the perpetrators more visible and more accountable. It is time to know much more about the extent and character of people’s use of violence and about the social conditions that make this more or less likely. And it is time to use this knowledge to guide efforts to prevent and reduce domestic, family, and sexual violence.