Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

Department of Justice is now the Department of Communities and Justice. Find out more >

Apprehended Violence Orders (AVOs)

Apprehended Violence Orders (AVOs) are legal orders which aim to protect individuals from violence, threats and harassment. There are two types of AVOs:

Domestic (ADVOs) - ADVOs are made by the court to protect individuals from violence, threats and harassment from a spouse, de facto partner, ex partner, family member, carer or person living in the same household.
Personal (APVOs) - APVOs are orders made by the court to protect individuals from violence, threats and harassment from anyone who they are not in a domestic or family relationship with.

In NSW, AVOs are granted in the Local Court under the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007. An order granted by the court contains three mandatory conditions with which the defendant must comply; (1) not to assault, harass or threaten the protected person, (2) not to intimidate the protected person and (3) not to stalk the protected person (see Part 8 Section 36) (Napier et al. 2015). The court may impose a number of additional prohibitions or restrictions on the behaviour of the defendant if they deem them necessary to protect the person or any children involved (see Part 8 section 35).

Tables: Apprehended Violence Orders Excel Table

The next update will be available: December 2021

1. Current trends

The graph below shows the number of final AVOs granted in NSW by the type of order granted.

2. Breach rate of ADVOs

A 2016 BOCSAR report estimated the proportion of ADVOs breached in NSW. There are three types of ADVOs; Provisional Orders, Interim Court Orders and Final Orders.

1. Provisional orders are short-term ADVOs that can be granted in urgent situations without the matter having to be brought before the court.

2. An interim ADVO is a short-term order made by the court which can extend a provisional order or put protection(s) in place for the victim until a final ADVO application can be considered by the court.

3. A final ADVO can be made by the court after a defended hearing, if a defendant has been served with the ADVO documents but failed to appear in court or in cases where both parties consent to the conditions specified in the order.

Table 1: Proportion of orders which were breached by order type, July 2013 and June 2014

Type of order	Breach rate
Provisional	5.0%
Interim	9.4%
Final	19.7%

Link to full report - Breach rate of Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders in NSW

3. Map

The map below shows the residential locations of persons who had an ADVO granted against them in the 12 months to December 2019. The areas with the highest rates of protected persons are located in the north/north western NSW.