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.