Data released this week by the Coroner’s Court of Victoria provides a detailed account of the experiences of family violence among people who have died by suicide.
The statistics are alarming. They remind us of what many working in this space already instinctively knew: the horrifically high count of lives lost to the national crisis of men’s violence against women is likely far higher than official numbers suggest.
This latest report presents data collected by the Victorian Suicide Register on 4,790 suicides reported between 2009 and 2016.
Over this period, in one in four suicides (24.5%) the deceased had experienced family violence prior to their death.
This rate was higher among females who died by suicide, with evidence of family violence present in 28.2% of cases recorded.
This rate only captures the cases in which evidence of family violence could be identified by the court.
Given all forms of family violence are under reported, including to police, legal and other services, this data are likely to underestimate the true rates of family violence experienced by people who die by suicide.
The data also show female victims of family violence who died by suicide were more likely to have experienced family violence by their intimate partner.
By contrast, male victims were more likely to have experienced family violence perpetrated by a family member other than their partner.
Source: New data reveals rates of family violence among those who died by suicide