Advocates warn of escalating adolescent home violence after Perth alleged murder

Family violence advocates are calling for greater specialist support to thwart a reported increase in adolescent violence in the home, after a 16-year-old Perth boy was charged with murdering his mother and attempting to kill his sister.

The renewed focus on the issue comes after the alleged family violence homicide and stabbing in the Perth suburb of Bentley this week.

On Wednesday, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said police had seen an increase in family violence reports, many of which involved children using violence against their parents.

"We know in Western Australia and across Australia and probably across the world, we're seeing a significant escalation of family violence reports to police across the board," he said.

The ABC requested specific data from WA Police but was told it was not readily available.

But Jolene Ellat, chief executive of the Domestic Abuse Resource and Training Group (DART), said she had noted demand for training and support around adolescent violence in the home had grown over the past 12 months

"Organisations are coming to us, seeking adolescent violence in the home training for their practitioners on the ground, who are reporting that there's more abusive behaviours demonstrated inside the home," she said.

"This is not general teenage conflict.

"There's cohesive control, there are family members that are in fear or are shifting behaviours because they're worried about how a young person is going to respond."

Ms Ellat said there was no single cause behind such behaviours, as adolescent violence was often influenced by a combination of complex factors.

"Mental health challenges, neurodevelopmental differences, substance use or difficulties with emotional regulation can also contribute, although these do not cause violence on their own," she said.

"What's important to note is not labelling young people as perpetrators of violence, but really noticing emerging abusive behaviours taking place early in order to interrupt that trajectory.

"We need more services and resources put into those services … more avenues for families to seek supports without shame or stigma and more training."

WA cabinet minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said preventing family and domestic violence was everyone's responsibility, urging community leaders to "keep the temperature down".

"We are doing everything we can as a government, but ... this is a broader community issue that everyone needs to take up and address," she said.

A WA Police spokesperson said family and domestic violence remained the force's utmost priority, with officers working around the clock to protect victims and hold offenders to account.

Importance of early intervention

Ms Ellat said warning signs of emerging violence among adolescents included escalating intimidation or threats, coercive or controlling behaviour, financial abuse and even parents changing their own behaviour driven by fear of how an adolescent will react.

Child and forensic psychologist Phil Watts encouraged parents to seek support before those behaviours escalated.

"When aggression turns into behavioural patterns as opposed to an emotion of anger, that's where people really need to start looking if there's an issue," he said.

"Parents really need to be on it early and really get some help and sadly in WA, there's not a lot of services on the severe end.

"I think this is an opportunity for agencies and society to reflect and think [about] how do we target this better?

"We have this ironic society at the minute where on one hand we want to try and reduce violence against women, reduce violence as a society.

"But at the same token, you can turn on a TV and there's violence everywhere … the whole concept of violence is well integrated in society."

Breaking the stigma

The police commissioner also said violence from children against their parents was "significantly under-reported" because "parents understandably are reluctant to report crimes against their children".

Monash University professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon said shame often prevented parents from seeking help.

"There's a real concern that it might reflect you're a bad parent, you haven't done a good job, that they're responsible," she said.

"The responsibility for the use of violence, sits with the person using that violence."

Professor Fitz-Gibbon called for all levels of government to address any barriers parents may face when seeking help.

"This is a national crisis and we need all governments responding with funding levels and actions commensurate with the scale of the challenge we're seeking to address," she said.

"Until we do that, we will unfortunately continue to see horrific circumstances."