Domestic & Family Violence
Violence against women is a problem of epidemic proportions in Australia. It is both a serious violation of women’s human rights, and extremely costly to the whole of society. Violence against women in Australia takes many forms, including intimate partner violence, sexual assault (partner and nonpartner), workplace sexual harassment and street harassment. It includes physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, social, cultural, spiritual, financial and technology-facilitated violence or abuse, and stalking. This violence occurs in the home, in workplaces, in social settings and public spaces, in residential care, in institutions and online. It can be a one-off incident, or an ongoing pattern of deliberately coercive and controlling behaviour. Violence against women is both a symptom and a cause of gender inequality, and a barrier to its achievement.
Source: Our Watch. (2021). Change the story: A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women in Australia – Summary (2nd ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Our Watch.On average one woman a week in Australia is killed by an intimate partner.
Approximately one quarter of women in Australia have experienced at least one incident of violence by an intimate partner.
Source: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2018).Since the age of 15:
- One in six women (17% or 1.6 million) and one in sixteen men (6.1% or 547,600) has experienced at least one incident of violence by a partner (partner = a person whom the respondent lives with, or lived with at some point, in a married or de facto relationship).
- Approximately one in four women (23% or 2.2 million) has experienced emotional abuse by a partner.
Of women who have experienced violence by a current partner since the age of 15:
- Just over half (54% or 149,700) had sought advice or support about the violence they experienced.
- 82 percent (225,700) had never contacted the police.
