The role of perpetrator interventions in acknowledging children as victim-survivors of domestic and family violence in their own right

ABSTRACT

Central to recent domestic and family violence policy and practice reforms at the national and state level in Australia, there has been increasing recognition of the need to build system responses to children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right, as well as growing commitments to develop a suite of perpetrator interventions. These two foci, however, have been implemented in relative isolation from one another. This article critically examines the degree to which the visibility of children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right could be brought to the fore in perpetrator intervention policy and practice in Australia. Drawing on findings from a men's behaviour change program (MBCP) review, this article examines the need for family violence perpetrator interventions to advance opportunities for engagement with children and young people. The article looks at relevant international practice and current Australian national and state policies, concluding that there is both a policy-authorising environment and international models from which to draw to achieve improved support options for children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right through the delivery of MBCPs.

KEYWORDS:

• Children and young people
• family violence
• men's behaviour change programs; perpetrator interventions
• victim-survivors

Acknowledgements

Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon contributed to this article in her role at Monash University. This article is wholly independent of Kate Fitz-Gibbon's role as Chair of Respect Victoria. Nicola Helps contributed to this paper in her capacity as a postdoctoral research fellow with the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ethics approval was obtained from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee, project ID 31684. For further details on the study design, see Helps et al. (2023).

Additional information

Funding

The data presented in this article was collected as part of a project funded by No To Violence.