Thursday 23 July
The findings from BOCSAR’s Crime Victimisation Survey contribute to our understanding of broader trends. However, domestic and family violence is a complex and deeply under-reported crime, and survey findings should be considered alongside the experiences of specialist frontline domestic and family violence services.
A reduction in self-reported victimisation should not be interpreted as evidence that domestic and family violence has reduced across the community. Many victim-survivors never disclose their experiences in surveys or to police because of fear of retaliation, concerns they won’t be believed, shame, coercive control, previous negative experiences with the justice system, racism, and for some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, the very real fear of child removal.
As the peak body representing more than 200 specialist domestic and family violence organisations across NSW, our members are seeing a very different picture. Some services are operating at up to nine times their funded capacity, waitlists regularly exceed three months, and in our 2025-member survey, 94% of responding services reported demand had increased compared with the previous year.
Those frontline experiences cannot be overlooked when assessing whether domestic and family violence is increasing, decreasing or remaining stable. Demand for specialist services remains overwhelming, and for victim-survivors unable to access support when they need it, the consequences can be life-threatening.
Rather than viewing these findings as a sign the problem has been solved, they reinforce the need for continued investment in prevention, early intervention and specialist domestic and family violence services. Improvements in one measure should never become a reason for complacency while frontline services continue to face record levels of demand.
Every dataset tells part of the story. To understand the true scale of domestic and family violence in NSW, we must consider research alongside the lived reality of victim-survivors and the evidence from the specialist services supporting them every day – who generally remain absent from all sources of data used to compile these findings.
Whole-of-government response starts with collecting whole-of-government data.