Domestic Violence Increase In Victorian Lockdowns

14/08/2023

Domestic and family violence has seen an increase in many Victorian suburbs since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic posed many challenges however one of the most difficult was staying home with families for extended periods of time. For over 88,000 men and women this contributed to an increase in existing domestic violence or the beginning of it.

Statistics from the Crime Statistics Agency released in late March showed that there was a significant increase in the number of victims and recorded incidents between the years of 2019 – 2021.

Pre-Covid levels of domestic violence remained high with over 75,000 incidents being recorded in 2017-2018. However, this number jumped significantly in the first year of the extended lockdown with over 90,000 incidents recorded by Victoria Police.

With the findings from Crime Statistics Agency several suburbs of Melbourne’s Northwest calculated to the highest numbers of domestic violence. Local government areas such as Wyndham, Hume, Whittlesea, Melton and Brimbank had the highest numbers of domestic violence between the years of 2019 to 2022.  

Local government area of Wyndham saw a significant spike at the beginning of 2019 and a second spike at the start of 2020. Wyndham is also the only suburb in these five outliers that has not decreased since the beginning of the pandemic.

The northern area of Hume began with the highest numbers of domestic violence pre-pandemic and saw the highest number of recorded incidents during the years of lockdowns. However, unlike Wyndham, the area has now decreased in recorded incidents and the former has surpassed in cases.

Overall, the years of 2021-2022 did have a decrease in the number of recorded incidents in the state of Victoria. However, the lasting effects of domestic violence continue to take a toll on victims, and many are still searching for stability after the pandemic lockdowns.

A study conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that within the first months of 2020, those who were already victims of domestic violence said that the violence began to escalate. The survey with over 15,000 women found that more than half experienced an increase of severity and frequency in the three months prior to the survey being conducted.

ANROWS or Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety offered an insight into the prevalence of domestic violence and outlined three factors that contributed to the increase:

-       Barriers for women to seeking help.

-       Impact of increased time at home with social isolation and financial stress.

-       Populations most at risk of experiencing DFV.