A new study by the Sentencing Advisory Council has found a disproportionately high number of applications for personal safety intervention orders (PSIOs) are being made in regional Victoria.
In other states and territories, PSIOs may be referred to as restraining orders and are designed to protect an individual, their family, and property from another person.
Personal safety intervention orders are most often issued between neighbours, co-tenants, and boarders.
It is a separate legal order, a family violence intervention order (FVIO), which is made to protect parties from family, a partner, or an ex-partner.
The research found 105,000 applications for intervention orders were submitted by Victorians from 2011 to 2020, with an estimated 57,000 granted.
While just a quarter of the state's population lives in outer-metro communities, the study found 41 per cent of the applications are made by regional and rural Victorians.
Sentencing Advisory Council chair, Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg, said the over-representation of regional Victoria in PSIO applications was concerning.
"But it would appear from our feedback that there are higher rates of low socio-economic disadvantage – particularly in the Loddon-Mallee area and the Gippsland area."
Fifty-five per cent of all individuals protected by PSIOs were female.
In the past decade to 2020, the report revealed there were over 10,000 intervention order breaches sentenced in Victoria.
Two-thirds of the offenders were male.
The report also found a high rate of family violence associated with offenders breaching intervention orders.
"Although they are separate, family violence orders and personal safety orders ... there will be situations where people associated with a family — but not a family member — will fall under this act.
"It'll be an associated family member but not a family member directly."
The report found just 3 per cent of the intervention orders are filed against strangers.
"They are very, very rare indeed," Professor Freiberg said.
"What you'll find is the vast majority of those are people living together in public housing.
"It's mainly neighbours, co-tenants, and boarders, and in many of those we've found are likely to have cognitive impairment, an acquired brain injury, or a history of violence or substance abuse."
