Australia's homicide rate drops but not DV deaths

Australia's homicide rates have plunged to their second lowest numbers since national reporting began, but domestic violence services say this is not reflected in the rate women are murdered by their partners. 

An Australian Institute of Criminology report released on Tuesday showed the nation's homicide incident rate fell overall by 55 per cent since 1990.

"The report shows that in 2020/21, which included various stages of COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns, Australia saw the second lowest homicide incident rate since we began reporting (0.82 per 100,000)," AIC deputy director Dr Rick Brown said.

"The female intimate partner homicide rate was 0.25 per 100,000 - the lowest rate since the AIC's National Homicide Monitoring Program commenced in 1990."

Rates of domestic homicide, defined where the victim is an offender's intimate partner or relative and believed to account for about 40 per cent of all homicide incidents, halved in the same time period.

Of the 221 people killed in the 12 months from July 2020 to June 2021, 76 were attributed to domestic homicides with half of the victims killed by an intimate partner.

Despite the downward trend, intimate partner homicide accounted for almost one in five (18 per cent) of all homicides over the year. 

Full Stop Australia CEO Hayley Foster, whose organisation supports people affected by sexual, domestic or family violence, said more work needed to be done.

"Yes, overall homicide rates are coming down, but the domestic homicide rate is not coming down as rapidly," Ms Foster said. 

"We still have a massive crisis."

One woman was murdered by a partner or former partner in Australia every 10 days, Ms Foster said.

"We are are making progress and seeing instrumental change but we still have a long way to go."

Ms Foster said other forms of violent crimes including sexual violence were increasing.

"Homicide statistics are important but they're only one measure and ignore people's experiences of violence and abuse more generally."

Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre CEO Chelsea Tobin said while the AIC report showed an overall decline in homicides across Australia, the rate of decline was not being seen across intimate partner violence. 

"The AIC report shows that overall homicides in Australia have declined over the last 30 years, which is, of course, a very good thing," Dr Tobin said. 

"It's important to note, however, that the rate of women killed by intimate partners has only changed very slightly, nothing close to the rate of decline in other forms of homicide."

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