An ongoing area of policy and policing.
Family violence remains the largest reported category of assault in Victoria and the most costly item in the state's justice, health and community-services budgets. A decade after the Royal Commission into Family Violence handed down its 227 recommendations, the reform program continues — but so does the underlying demand.
Victoria Police recorded roughly 100,000 family-violence incidents in 2025, up 2% year-on-year and up more than 40% over a decade. The rise is partly increased reporting — a deliberate policy outcome — and partly increased incidence, particularly during and after the pandemic. Family violence accounts for around 40% of all assault reports and a much higher share of homicides.
One in four Victorian women has experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence than non-Indigenous women.
The 2016 Royal Commission recommendations reshaped the response system: the network of Orange Door support hubs across 17 areas, the specialist Family Violence Court, mandatory training for police responders, expanded refuge capacity, and a permanent Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor.
The state has spent roughly $4.4 billion implementing the recommendations. Nearly all have been marked "complete" or "in progress", though the Monitor's most recent report flagged serious concerns about workforce shortages, particularly in specialist family-violence roles and Aboriginal community-controlled services.
Three priorities dominate the current policy agenda. First, perpetrator accountability — a big shift from the historical focus on victim-survivor support, with expanded men's behaviour-change programs and a trial of GPS monitoring for the highest-risk respondents. Second, primary prevention through the Respectful Relationships program now embedded in Victorian schools. Third, financial abuse, which the state formally recognised as family violence in 2024 and which is being written into the training of banks and utilities.
Specialist Family Violence Courts now operate in Ballarat, Bendigo, Frankston, Heidelberg, Moorabbin, Shepparton and the Melbourne CBD. Applications for family-violence intervention orders exceeded 55,000 last year — the highest on record. Breach-of-order prosecutions and custodial sentences for repeat perpetrators have both risen sharply.
Safe Steps operates the 24/7 statewide family-violence response line on 1800 015 188. 1800RESPECT is the national counselling line. The Orange Door network provides face-to-face support across the state and can be found via orangedoor.vic.gov.au. In an emergency call 000.
The next Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor report, the Coroner's ongoing family-violence deaths reviews, and the outcome of the GPS-monitoring trial. The underlying test is whether the incident numbers stabilise as the primary-prevention cohort — young Victorians who went through Respectful Relationships programs — moves into adulthood.