30 August 2018
The Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) has released its eight 'In Fact' research paper entitled "Adolescent sibling violence in Victoria". The paper explores patterns of sibling offending, as well as characteristics of perpetrators and victims.
More than 700 crimes against the person were recorded between adolescent siblings during the past five years, with the annual number increasing from 146 in 2013 to 191 in 2017. Common assault was the most frequently recorded offence type, followed by serious assault.
The study found that most perpetrators of sibling violence in Victoria were male (77.8%), and 58.5% of victims were female. The average age of perpetrators was 14.7 years old. In around three-quarters of sibling violence sub-incidents the perpetrator was older than the victim, and in 46.2% of sub-incidents a brother offended against his sister.
Almost one-third of perpetrators of sibling violence were recorded as a victim of a family incident in the five years prior. More in-depth research is planned to further examine patterns of how violence develops between siblings over time, and the relationships between sibling violence and other types of family violence.
The paper Adolescent sibling violence in Victoria is available here.
The media release for this paper is available here.