Dangerous family violence perpetrators should be put on a high-risk “watchlist” so they can be monitored to reduce the risk of danger to victims, in the same way police monitor terrorism suspects to avert potential attacks, says a family violence security specialist.

And a dedicated unit with the same intelligence-gathering powers as counter-terrorism operatives should be established to monitor activity of high-risk family violence perpetrators and stop them before they offend.

“This proactive policing has worked to stop terror incidents in the past and could well work to stop this ongoing, continuing violence which is unfortunately our own homegrown, domestic terrorism issue,” says Steve Wilson, a founder of Protective Group, one of a handful of Australian security companies that specialise in family violence risk management.

This scrutiny would apply in the most high-risk cases: perpetrators who had repeatedly breached intervention orders, threatened to kill their victims, and had access to firearms, for example. Other “red flag” behaviours include violence towards pregnant women and cruelty to animals.