For the first time in Victoria’s history, the volume of violence and abuse against women by former partners has outweighed that by current partners. Shocking state data reveal that in the year to March ex-partners committed offences at the rate of 82 a day.
Alarmingly, the rate of family violence by former partners has surged by almost 50 per cent in the past five years and now dwarfs violence by current partners who in the past year were responsible for 27,349 acts of family violence.
Fifty-two women and 13 children have been killed by family violence perpetrators in Victoria in the past five years.
Three-quarters of those women were killed by a current or former partner.
It comes as experts say women who flee violent relationships, are finding it harder, sometimes impossible, to fully escape, with easy-to-access technology such as stalking devices, spyware and social media fuelling the dangerous shift.
Assistant Commissioner for Family Violence Lauren Callaway said women were being monitored by covert technology at levels never seen before.
Ms Callaway said family violence was the leading cause of homicides of women.
Of the 52 women killed in Victoria in the past five years, 30 were in a relationship with their killer at the time of death.
Eight were killed after leaving the relationship.
Experts say escaping an abusive relationship can be a time of enormous risk, with the volume of violence committed by vengeful ex-partners reaching a point where they are now considered the state’s primary family violence perpetrators.
There have been many cases in Victoria where a child is killed as the ultimate act of violence toward a partner or ex-partner.
Source: EXTREME ANGER – Herald Sun