| 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. |
| Diverse groups | Groups that may have different experiences of family violence and different needs, and who may be experiencing additional barriers to seeking help and receiving support due to particular background or personal characteristics. These include children and young people, older people, Aboriginal peoples, people within culturally diverse communities, people within the LGBTIQ+ community, people living in rural, regional and remote communities, people with a disability, male victims, women prisoners and women who work in the sex industry. |
| Drivers of violence against women | The social conditions that lead to violence, which often reflect underlying inequalities in social or economic power among different groups of people.** |
| 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 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 (MARAM) 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 Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework | A framework to help identify, assess and manage 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. |
| Family violence regional integration committees | Committees established in 2006 in each of the then 14 Department of Human Services’ regions. Their purpose is to improve the integration of services that respond to family violence at the local level, to drive workforce development, and to act as a conduit between specialist family violence and other providers in local areas. |
| Gender equality | The equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women, men, trans (and gender diverse) and intersex people. Equality does not mean that everyone will become the same, but that their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on their gender.** |
| Gender inequality | The unequal distribution of power, resources, opportunity and value afforded to men and women in a society due to prevailing gendered norms and structures.** |
| LGBTIQ+ | An inclusive initialism that refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender / gender diverse, intersex and queer people. |
| MARAM | See Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework. |
| Office for Prevention of Family Violence and Coordination | An office within the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing with dedicated responsibility for coordinating key elements of family violence reform. This includes implementing the Free From Violence plan in partnership with Respect Victoria and the family violence prevention sector. |
| Principal Strategic Advisor | A key leadership role within the Family Violence Regional Integration Committees. This role has a strong focus on integration and collaboration of services, driving implementation of the reforms and capacity building of the workforce. |
| Primary prevention | Whole-of-population initiatives that address the primary (‘first’ or ‘underlying’) drivers of violence against women.^ |
| Respect and Equality in TAFE | An initiative that supports Victorian TAFEs to implement a whole-of-TAFE approach to the pursuit of gender equality and primary prevention of violence against women. |
| Respectful Relationships | A primary prevention education initiative that supports government, Catholic and independent schools and early childhood settings to promote and model respect, positive attitudes and behaviours. The Victorian Curriculum provides the basis for teaching and learning about respectful relationships and identifies the knowledge, skills and understanding for students to be able to engage in respectful relationships. |
| Respect Victoria | Established in 2018, in response to recommendation 188 of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, Respect Victoria is Victoria’s first independent agency dedicated to primary prevention. |
| Response | Also referred to as tertiary prevention. Supports victim survivors and holds perpetrators to account, aiming to prevent the re-occurrence of violence.^ |
| 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. |
| Settings | Environments in which people live, work, learn, socialise and play, such as sports clubs, schools, universities and online.** |
| Socio-ecological model | A prevention framework in public health approaches for a broad range of issues. The model assumes that work to prevent family violence and all forms of violence against women must be coordinated across and between activities at all levels of society – from individual attitudes and behaviours, organisational and community practices and norms, to institutional structures and, more broadly, systems and society.** |
| System architecture | The structural design of a system, including the core components necessary for a system to fulfil its goals. |
| Theory of change | A comprehensive description of what activities are needed to achieve a desired outcome. It demonstrates how and why a desired change is expected to happen in the short, medium and long term. |
| Victim survivor | A person who has experienced domestic, family or sexual violence. |
| Violence against women | Any act of gender-based violence that causes or could cause physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of harm or coercion, in public or in private life. This definition encompasses all forms of violence that women experience (including physical, sexual, emotional, cultural/spiritual, financial, and others) that are gender-based.** |
| Women’s health services | Services that exist to support the health and wellbeing of women and that have a leading role in driving gender equality and the prevention of violence against women locally. Both statewide services and a network of metropolitan and regional services ensure coverage across the state. |
** Definition from Department of Premier and Cabinet (2017): Free From Violence: Victoria’s strategy to prevent family violence and all forms of violence against women.
^ Definition from Our Watch (2021): Change the Story. A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women in Australia (second edition).
Updated