The rationale includes:
Unaddressed, violent behaviour can continue or worsen, placing victim-survivors at ongoing risk. Structured programs for men who use violence—such as Men’s Behaviour Change Programs—are crucial to interrupting cycles of abuse and preventing reoffending. However, to be effective, these programs must be culturally safe and relevant, recognising the diverse ways that violence is experienced, understood, and addressed across communities.
Victim safety is significantly compromised if perpetrators are not held accountable or supported to change. The Royal Commission underscored that interventions with men are not separate from safety—they are integral to it. Importantly, safety cannot be guaranteed through mainstream approaches alone; culturally competent services are essential to engage men from diverse backgrounds in ways that are respectful, accessible, and effective.
Working with men reinforces that violence is a choice and a responsibility, not an uncontrollable impulse. It also helps to challenge the underlying gendered and cultural norms that sustain violence. Culturally competent practice is essential here: it ensures that responses do not reinforce racial or cultural stereotypes, but instead work in partnership with communities to foster accountability and healing.
The Royal Commission acknowledged the potential for meaningful change when men are held accountable in consistent, evidence-based, and relational ways. Culturally informed approaches can deepen the impact of this work by addressing intergenerational trauma, migration experiences, racism, and marginalisation—factors that influence how men engage with services and their capacity for change.
Mainstream services alone cannot meet the needs of all communities. The Royal Commission found that culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, Aboriginal communities, and others face significant barriers to accessing appropriate support. To address these inequities, perpetrator interventions must be culturally competent, community-informed, and tailored to diverse social, spiritual, and linguistic contexts.
inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence plays a nationally recognised role in working with men from migrant and refugee backgrounds who use violence. With its specialist knowledge of culture, migration, and settlement, inTouch delivers culturally tailored perpetrator interventions that are responsive to the unique challenges faced by these men—including experiences of trauma, systemic discrimination, and cultural dislocation. By combining accountability with cultural understanding, inTouch helps men to take esponsibility for their behaviour while promoting safer outcomes for women, children, and communities. Its work exemplifies the kind of innovative, community-centred practice recommended by the Royal Commission as essential to a just and inclusive family violence system.
The key program offered by inTouch is the Motivation for Change Program
In our work with these men, inTouch utilises our pioneering inLanguage, inCulture delivery model, which is built on our specialist and nuanced knowledge of the experiences and needs of migrant and refugee communities in Australia. Through programs that challenge men’s behaviour like Motivation for Change, specifically tailored projects and capacity building with multicultural communities, inTouch can address attitudes and behaviours before they cause harm, using language and culture as a strength-based response.
