Young people’s MARAM Practice Guidance – Evidence Review
In 2022 the CIJ was commissioned as a subject matter expert to contribute to a Practice Guidance regarding the use of family violence by young people. The project included facilitating consultations and then developing content for Family Safety Victoria to incorporate into a Practice Guidance which will accompany the children and young people focused Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) tools, to be released in 2023.
The project also included a review of the evidence base regarding tools currently used to assess young people’s use of adolescent violence at home (AVITH), adolescent intimate partner or ‘dating’ violence (ADV) and harmful sexual behaviours (HSB). As such, the project took an unusually broad approach so as to contemplate what should be in or out of consideration in the development of any associated tools. Practice considerations for assessing risk and protective factors were also in scope.
The review highlighted the prevalence of experiences of adult perpetrated harm and other forms of trauma and marginalisation shared by young people using interpersonal harm. Considerations around disability and barriers to service engagement were also explored. Overall, the review concluded that tools were not likely to be applicable across the gamut of behaviours but recommended a focus on AVITH as a first port of call. Overall, the CIJ recommended that a Practice Guidance flag commonalities in histories of victimisation as a first step in centring a response to young people as children first and people using violence second.