The Family Law Act defines family violence as
"family violence" means conduct, whether actual or threatened, by a person towards, or towards the property of, a member of the person's family that causes that or any other member of the person's family reasonably to fear for, or reasonably to be apprehensive about, his or her personal wellbeing or safety.
The Court's Family Violence Committee considered that a more comprehensive description of the elements of violence was needed to meet the objectives of the Family Violence strategy. To meet this need the following description has been adopted by the Court:
Family violence covers a broad range of controlling behaviours, commonly of a physical, sexual, and/or psychological nature, which typically involve fear, harm, intimidation and emotional deprivation. It occurs within a variety of close interpersonal relationships, such as between spouses, partners, parents and children, siblings, andin other relationships where significant others are not part of the physical household but are part of the family and/or are fulfilling the function of family.
Common forms of violence in families include: