An Australian-born, non-Indigenous man in his early 30s armed with a knife is the average type of domestic violence (DV) homicide offender, according to data released exclusively to this masthead ahead of this week’s launch of an Australian-first interactive dashboard.
NSW State Coroner Judge Teresa O’Sullivan said the new tool would provide accessible and usable updates that could prove crucial to policymakers, frontline workers, researchers and advocates as she expressed concern about a recent spike in domestic violence homicides.
The state’s Domestic Violence Death Review Team (DVDRT), which created the dashboard, found that nearly one-third of all homicides involve a known history of DV.
In the past 26 years, almost 300 women were killed by their current or former intimate male partner following a history of DV.
Of these women, 99 per cent were the primary domestic violence victims throughout their relationship. Meanwhile, 73 per cent of the 75 men killed by their current or former female partners were the primary abusers – indicating that most women killed in defence of themselves or others.
Source: NSW domestic violence data reveals average profile of offender