Children who have lost a parent due to family violence are often invisible, silenced and stigmatised. This needs to change.
A lack of reliable data
Child’s rights in practice
List of research articles
The loss of a parent due to fatal family violence has profound and lifelong impact on the children and young people left behind. They not only lose the parent who has died, but also lose the other parent to prison, disappearance or suicide. All aspects of their life are disrupted, with long-term consequences for mental and physical health, learning and social connections. Our research has identified several key impacts experienced by children and young people affected by fatal family violence:
The number of children and young people affected in Australia is unknown; previously reported data are likely substantial underestimates and no single Australian Government agency is responsible for collecting and reporting national data on children bereaved by fatal family violence.
Decades of research show the harms of exposure to domestic violence and have begun to centre the voices of victim-survivors. However, children bereaved by intimate partner homicide (IPH) remain largely overlooked. Often described as the “neglected victims,” there is very limited data on their experiences, needs, and long-term outcomes.
This gap reflects both ethical and practical research challenges, as well as a historical focus on adult perspectives. As a result, there is little reliable prevalence data globally or in Australia.
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Children in Australia have a recognised right to be heard in decisions that affect their lives, as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 12). However, our research with children bereaved by fatal family violence highlights a gap between this right in principle and what happens in practice. Many children are not given meaningful opportunities to express their views or be involved in key decisions, pointing to a lack of consistent approaches to embedding children’s participation across systems.
Our research found that in some circumstances:
At the core of our work is a commitment to child-centred practice and participation. We place children’s voices at the centre of research and advocate for others to do the same. This means creating genuine opportunities for children and young people to be heard, supported to express their views, taken seriously, and actively involved in decisions that affect them, including sharing power and responsibility wherever possible. Practical frameworks, such as the Save the Children (54 reasons) Child Participation Framework, provide clear guidance for organisations to strengthen how they embed these principles in everyday practice.
The following is a curated list of reports and journal articles, selected by the research team.
Children and young people bereaved by domestic homicide: A focus on Australia | 2023 | Read This brief report conveys key findings from the study “Children and young people bereaved by domestic homicide: Understanding home, relationships and identity,“ with a focus on Australia.
Parliamentary Inquiry into the Relationship between Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence and Suicide | Melbourne City Mission, Jan 2026 | ReadThese deaths are too often masked by other issues and inadequately recorded in datasets, resulting in inappropriate or missing system responses for young victim survivors of family violence. This work shows that too many young people who have experienced DFSV die by suicide after repeated system failures and inadequate services and housing to support their safety needs, and their healing and recovery.
Home after Homicide: How Do Children and Young People Experience Home Following Bereavement Through Intimate Partner Homicide? | 2026 | Read A qualitative study exploring how children and young people bereaved by parental intimate partner homicide in childhood experience “home” after the homicide, with implications on how to support bereaved families.
“That Weird Kid Without Parents”: A Qualitative Analysis of Identity Following Bereavement due to Parental Intimate Partner Homicide in Australia | 2024 | Read This qualitative study aimed to generate a better understanding of post-homicide experiences and needs in the context of identity to improve support for these neglected victim-survivors.
Intimate partner homicide and the needs of bereaved children | 2022 | Read This article examines the complex impacts of parental intimate partner homicide on children, highlighting their unique trauma, disrupted caregiving and living arrangements.
Applying a socio-ecological model to understanding the needs of children and young people bereaved by intimate partner homicide across their life course | 2024 | Read The purpose of this article was to develop a socio-ecological understanding of the immediate and long-term effects on, and the needs of, children and young people (CYP) in the UK and Ireland bereaved by parental intimate partner homicide (IPH).
Crafting Subverses: A narrative analysis of the experience of losing a parent through intimate partner homicide | 2024 | Read This study investigates the experiences of young people and adults bereaved by parental intimate partner homicide during childhood to gain a better understanding of how they make sense of and share their personal story after such a loss.
This Spotlight page is made possible by the Family Violence Sexual Violence Project, a collaborative partnership between the four peaks.
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