16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence – Day 13

Violence against women is now recognised to be a serious and widespread problem in Australia, with enormous individual and community impacts and social costs… … However this significant social problem is also ultimately preventable.

But to prevent violence against women we first need to understand it. 

The following basic statistics help demonstrate the prevalence and severity of violence against women:

• On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner.
• 1 in 3 Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15.
• 1 in 5 Australian women has experienced sexual violence.
• 1 in 6 Australian women has experienced physical or sexual violence by current or former partner.
• 1 in 4 Australian women has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner.
• Australian women are nearly three times more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate partner.
• Australian women are almost four times more likely than men to be hospitalised after being assaulted by their spouse or partner.
• Women are more than twice as likely as men to have experienced fear or anxiety due to violence from a former partner.
• More than two-thirds (68%) of mothers who had children in their care when they experienced violence from their previous partner said their children had seen or heard the violence.
• Almost one in 10 women (9.4%) have experienced violence by a stranger since the age of 15.
• Young women (18 – 24 years) experience significantly higher rates of physical and sexual violence than women in older age groups.
• There is growing evidence that women with disabilities are more likely to experience violence.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women report experiencing violence in the previous months at 3.1 times the rate of non-Indigenous women
• In 2014–15, Indigenous women were 32 times as likely to be hospitalised due to family violence as non-Indigenous women