Rural and regional shires continue to dominate the list of the worst areas for recorded family violence but Ballarat has shown an almost 10 per cent decrease in the latest data.
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The Crime Statistics Agency data recorded up until the end of the 2018/19 year showed the number of incidents in Ballarat council area had dropped to 1781 from 1913 incidents reported to police in the previous year.
This is the second consecutive drop from a peak of 1934 in 2017.
This included 388 reported assaults and 231 breaches of orders.
Ballarat's family incident rate has also improved significantly at 1627 per 100,000 people, (from 1782 in 2018) putting it alongside Bendigo outside the top 20 worst rated LGA's in Victoria.
Other regional shires, including Central Goldfields at almost twice the rate of Ballarat continue to dominate the list of high rates per population headed by East Gippsland and Latrobe.
Ballarat's improving figures also bucked a statewide trend with the number of family incidents recorded by Victoria Police across the Victoria increasing by 8.6 per cent from 76,113 in 2017-18 to 82,652 in 2018-19.
This amounted to a 6.3 per cent increase in the rate per 100,000 population.
For Victoria the number of new family violence order applications finalised in the Magistrates' Court and Children's Court also increased by 3.5 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively, while emergency room presentations saw a slight increase by 1.4 per cent.
Crime Statistics Agency Chief Statistician Fiona Dowsley said improved reporting of the statistics was part of the imperative for the agency in line with recommendation 205 made by the Royal Commission into Family Violence in March 2016.
"In the last 12 months, there has been an increase in family incidents recorded by Victoria Police and new applications finalised in the Magistrates' and Children's Court, as well as increased use of family violence services'.' Ms Dowsley said.
"The increases seen across sectors may indicate that there has been a system wide improvement in data recording and reporting practices, greater public confidence in reporting incidents of family violence and greater access to family violence services."
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