Domestic violence rife in problem areas of Melbourne with local police making an arrest every 90 minutes

Pockets of Melbourne worst affected by family violence had almost 2700 related arrests between January and early June.

The arrests resulted in charges being laid for more than 7500 offences over serious family violence incidents, according to figures released by Victoria Police on Thursday.

The blitz took place in the city’s southeast across Cardinia, Casey, Frankston, Greater Dandenong and the Mornington Peninsula.

This amounted to an average of 17 arrests every day, or one arrest every hour and a half across the targeted suburbs.

Four of these areas rank in the top 15 for family violence in the state.

In the year to March, Casey recorded Victoria’s highest number of family violence-related offences, while Frankston ranks sixth in the state.

Dandenong is in tenth place, while the Mornington Peninsula is 13th and Cardinia ranks 25th in Victoria.

The five suburban areas accounted for more than 70 per cent of family violence incidents across southeast Melbourne.

Among the most serious arrests were a 42-year-old man held after allegedly stabbing a woman and assaulting a teenage child, in the presence of two younger children.

Another alleged incident involved a woman being strangled by her partner in front of her primary school-aged child in March.

Police in the area were hampered by dealing with family violence, Greater Dandenong Specialist Investigation and Support Inspector Rod Maroney said.

“Almost half of our workload relates to family violence, and we have made an enormous number of arrests this year,” he said.

“More than 7500 charges laid against perpetrators shows just how seriously we treat family violence.

In the year to March, family violence reported to police increased by three per cent, with almost 96,000 incidents recorded.