Prior offending among family violence perpetrators : a Tasmanian sample

Abstract

It is common practice to assess the risk of family violence recidivism and the efficacy of perpetrator treatment outcomes by taking into account the offending histories of offenders. However, the relationship between the frequency of family violence offending and other types of offending has not been fully explored. This study provides a snapshot of the six year offending histories of a cohort of Tasmanian family violence perpetrators. What emerges is a clear association between the frequency of family violence incidents and a history of other offending. That is, a group of family violence perpetrators engaged in high levels of family violence offending were identified as committing a range of other types of violence, traffic offences and the breach of violence orders. The findings from this study have implications for policy and practice, including the treatment and identification of family violence perpetrators.