| Aboriginal | While acknowledging the diversity of Aboriginal people in Australia, in this document the term ‘Aboriginal’ has been used to refer to all people of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent. |
| Affected family member | A person who has experienced family violence, also known as a victim survivor. The term is predominantly used in police and court proceedings to refer to the person to be protected by a family violence intervention order. |
| Applicant practitioner | A court-based support worker who provides non-legal advice and support to individuals who are applying for a family violence intervention order |
| Coercive control | A pattern of abusive behaviours and tactics used by a perpetrator of family violence to gain power and control over a partner or family member. |
| Collusion | Intentional or unintentional collaboration with a perpetrator by reinforcing, excusing, minimising or denying a perpetrator’s violence towards family members. |
| Duty lawyer | Publicly funded legal aid lawyer ‘on duty’ at courts and tribunals to provide free advice and representation for people attending a court hearing who do not have their own lawyer. |
| Family Safety Victoria | An administrative office of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (comprising some portfolio responsibilities of the former Department of Health and Human Services) with dedicated responsibility for delivering key elements of the family violence reform. This includes the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme, The Orange Door network and the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management reforms. |
| Family violence | Any violent, threatening, coercive or controlling behaviour that occurs in current or past familial relationships, including by intimate partners, family members, and/or non-family carers. |
| Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme |
Established in legislation, the scheme enables sharing of information between authorised organisations to support the assessment and management of family violence risk. |
| Family violence intervention order (FVIO) |
A court-issued order to protect people from further family violence. |
| Family Violence Investigation Units |
Established in each police division, the 31 units investigate serious family violence matters and support general duties police and other specialist units on appropriate risk management interventions to increase safety for adult and child victims. |
| Family violence liaison officer | Frontline police supervisor responsible for reviewing and auditing Family Violence Reports. Also provides support to frontline police officers around recording and practice in family violence incidents. |
| Family Violence Multi- Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework |
A framework to support the identification, assessment and management of family violence risk. A range of organisations are required by law, under the Family Violence Protection Act 2008, to align their practices and policies with MARAM, which replaced the former common risk assessment framework or ‘CRAF’. The MARAM Framework is supported by operational practice guidance and risk identification, screening and assessment tools. The MARAM Framework is also being implemented with the Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS) and the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS). |
| Family Violence Report | Risk assessment and management report completed by Victorian police officers when questioning all parties at a family violence incident (including children). It is the main referral pathway to community agencies and/or Child Protection. Also known as an ‘L17’. |
| Family violence safety notice | A police-issued notice that provides immediate protection for a person from a family member who is using family violence before an intervention order application is heard in court. |
| Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) | The Victoria Police database that includes information such as criminal offences, family incidents and missing persons. |
| LGBTIQ+ | An inclusive initialism that refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people. |
| Person most in need of protection | Within a familial relationship, the person deemed most at risk of future violence. |
| MARAM | See Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework. |
| Predominant aggressor | The term used in the MARAM Framework to denote the individual posing the greatest risk of ongoing harm and control over a partner, ex-partner or family member. This may be exerted through a number of abusive behaviours constituting physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Sometimes referred to as the primary aggressor. |
| Primary aggressor | The term used by Victoria Police in its manual and guidelines to denote the predominant aggressor (see definition above). |
| Respondent | A term used by police and the courts to describe the alleged family violence perpetrator. |
| Respondent practitioner | A court-based support worker who provides non-legal advice and support to an individual who is listed as a respondent on a family violence intervention order. |
| Royal Commission into Family Violence | Established in 2015, the Commission was tasked with finding ways to prevent family violence, improve support for victim survivors and hold perpetrators to account. The Royal Commission provided its report, which included 227 recommendations, to the Victorian Government on 29 March 2016. |
| Specialist Family Violence Courts | Specialist courts that provide enhanced safety features including separate entrances for victim survivors and remote hearing facilities. Specialist Family Violence Courts are staffed by specially trained magistrates and court staff, partner agencies and other court-based services to deliver a coordinated response. Magistrates at Specialist Family Violence Courts have powers to mandate counselling orders for perpetrators. |
| Systems abuse | The misuse of any systems, such as legal, child protection, health and human services, by perpetrators of family violence, to exercise control over, threaten and/or harass a victim survivor/s. |
| The Orange Door | A network that is the entry point to women’s and children’s family violence services, services for men who use violence and family services. It undertakes triage to assess and manage risk and connect people to the services they need. |
| Victim survivor | A person who has experienced domestic, family or sexual violence. |
| Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council | Formed in July 2016, the council was established to include people with lived experience of family violence in the service design of the family violence reform. |
| Violent resistance | When a victim survivor uses force in response to their abusive partner’s ongoing violent or controlling behaviours |
Updated