Men overwhelmingly dominate domestic and family violence offences - outstripping women by at least four to one - and most are aged in their 20s and early 30s, new figures show.
Amid ongoing community outrage over violence against women and children, statistics on perpetrators collected by frontline police, and published for the first time, have confirmed the extent of the problem.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics report on recorded crime by offenders shows that men are overwhelmingly responsible for domestic and family violence, with the most common offence being an act to cause injury.
In the five jurisdictions where data was collected - NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Northern Territory and ACT - there were more than 35,000 offenders of domestic and family violence between July 2014 and June 2015.
A person was counted as being an offender if they were recorded as having at least one selected offence that was flagged by police as being family and domestic violence related.
The offences included: homicide; acts intended to cause injury; sexual assault; abduction/harassment; and property damage.
The report shows that more than 19,000 people in NSW alone were deemed to be perpetrators of domestic and family violence, with four times as many male offenders (16,273) as female offenders (3670).
In the ACT, there were more than eight times as many male offenders.
The figures for the Northern Territory were even more alarming, with 1185 offenders per 100,000 persons, compared to NSW where there were 302 offenders per 100,000 persons.
In the Territory, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders represented 89 per cent of offenders.
The report also showed that the age profile of offenders was similar across the five jurisdictions with the highest proportion in the 20-34 years category.
The second highest proportion was in the 35-54 years age category, while those aged 55 years and over were the least represented group.
The release of the landmark report comes after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in September promised to do more to raise awareness and implement measures to alleviate domestic violence.
"We must elevate this issue to our national consciousness, and make it clear that domestic, family or sexual violence is unacceptable in any circumstances," Mr Turnbull said in September.
The information, drawn from police crime recording systems, will be used to build a stronger evidence base to support the second national plan to reduce violence against women and their children.
* National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency, call triple-zero.
