Federal State and Community Issues of Family and Sexual Violence

The column graph shows the proportion of males and females who experienced concrete or sexual abuse earlier the age of 15, by the human relationship to perpetrator. For both male and female person respondents, family members were more than likely to be perpetrators of physical abuse compared with not-family members. Perpetrators of sexual abuse were more likely to be not-family members compared with family members for both male and female respondents.

The line graph shows the number of male and female sexual assault victims per 100,000 people between 2010 and 2020. The graph shows that the sexual assault victimisation rate has increased over fourth dimension from 26.1 victims per 100,000 males in 2010 to 33.5 per 100,000 males in 2020. For females, the victimisation rate has increased from 143.viii victims per 100,000 females in 2010 to 178.7victims per 100,000 females in 2020.

Similar to national trends, a recent report by Victoria'due south Crime Statistics Bureau, showed that during 2020, family violence incidents reported to constabulary in Victoria had increased compared to 2019, with actual boilerplate monthly numbers higher than forecasted (Burgess et al 2021).

Homelessness services

Information on people accessing specialist homelessness services (SHS) can exist used to identify people who accept experienced family and domestic violence. These information cannot currently distinguish between victims and perpetrators of violence. However, from 1 July 2019, additional information has been collected on the type of services provided to SHS clients, including whether these are victim or perpetrator services (AIHW 2020). These new data will exist made available when they are found to be of sufficient quality.

In 2019–20, SHS agencies assisted around 119,200 clients who had experienced domestic and family violence. In 2019–20:

• nine in 10 (90%) adult (aged 18 years and over) clients were female person
• nigh half were single parents (48% lived in single parent households)
• almost one in four (23%) clients were Indigenous Australians
• 3 in 10 (30%) clients aged ten and over had a current mental health issue
• one in 10 (x%) of clients besides had problematic drug and/or booze use and a current mental wellness upshot.

Nationally, the number of clients reporting they had experienced family and domestic violence and sought assistance from SHS agencies rose on average past ix% each year between 2013–14 and 2017–18 (AIHW 2018). Post-obit years of steady increase, numbers and rates decreased slightly between 2017–18 and 2019–20 (49.2 per x,000 and 47.0 per 10,000 respectively) as a result of changes to reporting practices in Victoria (AIHW 2020). Run into also Homelessness and homelessness services.

Throughout the first vii months of the COVID-19 pandemic (March to December 2020), the number of SHS clients who had experienced domestic and family violence fluctuated from calendar month to calendar month; betwixt 31,700 and 33,800 clients. While there was no national blueprint evident, states and territories implemented a variety of different programs throughout the period and not all of these additional program were delivered through the SHS funding pathway.  For more than information, meet Specialist Homelessness Services: monthly data.

Health services

Hospitals provide mainstream health services for assault victims. The AIHW National Infirmary Morbidity Database includes data virtually individuals admitted to hospital with injuries acquired past physical assault, sexual assault or maltreatment.

In 2019–twenty:

• more than 1 in 3 (35% or 7,600) people admitted to hospital with assail injuries reported they were victims of family or domestic violence, a 7.five% increase from 7,100 in 2018–19
• more than than i in 5 (22% or 4,800) reported that the perpetrator was a spouse or domestic partner, a 5.7% increase from 4,600 in 2018–nineteen
• 1 in 3 (33% or 7,400) did not specify a human relationship between perpetrator and victim, a viii.iii% decrease from 8,000 in 2018–19.

Victims may also nowadays to emergency departments and chief wellness intendance professionals. Data on these presentations are not currently available.

Helplines

1800RESPECT is the national sexual attack, domestic and family violence counselling service. Throughout 2020, around 304,000 contacts (telephone and online) were answered. This may include contacts from frequent callers, nuisance callers and prank calls.  Monthly data showed that there was a 32% increment in contacts answered in the half-dozen months from COVID-xix being declared a pandemic (March to August 2020) (Australian Government Department of Social Services unpublished; AIHW 2021b).

Customs attitudes

Social attitudes and norms shape the context in which violence occurs. The National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey provides information about cognition and attitudes towards violence against women, gender roles and responses to violence. The survey was previously conducted in 2009, 2013 and 2017, the next survey is due to be completed in 2021.

Overall, the 2017 survey results showed encouraging trends in violence-related noesis and attitudes. For example, most Australians had authentic knowledge of violence confronting women and most recognised that violence can occur in dissimilar forms and involve more than just physical and sexual violence. While most people'south cognition of violence against women has increased, there are withal areas for improvement, such as:

• 1 in 3 (34%) Australians did not know that women are more than likely to be sexually assaulted by a known person than a stranger
• 2 in 5 Australians did not know where to access help for a domestic violence issue
• while most 2 in 3 (64%) Australians recognised that men are more probable to be perpetrators of domestic violence, this declined past vii pct points between 2013 and 2017
• i in 5 (19%) Australians did not recognise that women are more than likely than men to suffer physical damage from domestic violence (Webster et al. 2018).

Overall, most Australians rejected attitudes supportive of violence against women. Only a small and declining proportion since 2013 agreed that partner violence is a private, family unit thing. While results were generally encouraging, some attitudes were concerning:

• 1 in three (32%) Australians believed that women who practise not go out their abusive partners are partly responsible for violence standing
• two in 5 (42%) Australians agreed information technology was common for sexual assault accusations to exist used as a way of getting back at men
• ane in 5 (21%) Australians believed that domestic violence is a normal reaction to stress and that sometimes a woman tin brand a man so angry he hits her without meaning to (Webster et al. 2018).

Violence exists on a spectrum of behaviours. The same social and cultural attitudes underpinning family unit, domestic and sexual violence are at the root of other behaviours such as sexual harassment and stalking.

What is sexual harassment and stalking?

In the ABS 2016 PSS:

Sexual harassment includes indecent telephone calls, text messages, emails or social media posts; indecent exposure; inappropriate comments; and unwanted sexual touching.

Stalking is classified as unwanted behaviours (such every bit following or unwanted contact) that occur more than than once and cause fear or distress. Stalking is a crime in every state and territory of Commonwealth of australia (ABS 2017b).

Based on the 2016 PSS:

• i in 2 (53% or v million) women and 1 in 4 (25% or 2.ii million) men had experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime
• one in 6 (17% or ane.6 million) women and 1 in 16 (6.5% or 587,000) men had experienced stalking since the age of 15.

Of the one.2 million women who experienced stalking from a male in the 20 years before the survey:

• 31% (364,000) perceived the almost recent incident as a law-breaking at the time
• 29% (337,000) reported that police were contacted about the near recent incident (ABS 2017a).

A 2020 study by Australia's eSafety Commissioner on developed's negative online experiences establish that:

• 67% of those surveyed had a negative online feel in the 12 months to Baronial 2019
• 10% of those surveyed said they have been tracked electronically using engineering science to monitor movements without consent
• eight% of those surveyed said they received threats of real-life harm or abuse.

Where do I get for more data?

For more data on family, domestic and sexual violence, see:

• Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence in Australia 2019
• Australia's National Enquiry Organization for Women's Safe, National Community Attitudes towards Violence Against Women Survey
• Australian Agency of Statistics, Personal Safety Survey
• Australian Bureau of Statistics, Recorded Crime—Victims, Australia
• 1800RESPECT

References

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2017a. Personal Safety Survey 2016. ABS cat. no. 4906.0. Canberra: ABS.

ABS 2017b. Personal Prophylactic Survey, Commonwealth of australia: User Guide, 2016. ABS cat. no. 4906.0.55.003. Canberra: ABS.

ABS 2021. Recorded Criminal offense - Victims. ABS. Canberra: ABS.

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2018. Specialist homelessness services annual report 2017–xviii . Cat. no. HOU 299. Canberra: AIHW.

AIHW  2019. Family unit, domestic and sexual violence in Australia: standing the national story 2019. Cat. no. FDV 3. Canberra: AIHW.

AIHW 2020. Specialist homelessness services annual written report 2019–20 . True cat. no. HOU 322. Canberra: AIHW.

AIHW 2021a. Child protection in Australia 2019–xx.  Child protection Commonwealth of australia 2019–20. Cat. no. CWS 78. Canberra: AIHW.

AIHW 2021b. Child protection in the time of COVID-nineteen. Cat. no. CWS 76. Canberra: AIHW.

AIHW 2021c. COVID-19 and the impact on young people. Canberra: AIHW. Viewed 10 Baronial 2021.

Boxall, Morgan and Brown 2020. The prevalence of domestic violence among women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical Bulletin no. 28. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.

Burgess A, Nguyen A, Chai W and Kelly South 2021. Police force-recorded crime trends in Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic: update to end of December 2020. Melbourne: Crime Statistics Agency.

Role of the eSafety Commissioner 2020. Adults' negative online experiences. Australian Regime.

Webster Chiliad, Diemer K, Honey Northward, Mannix S, Mickle J, Morgan J et al. 2018. Australians' attitudes towards violence against women and gender equality: findings from the 2017 National Customs Attitudes towards Violence Confronting Women Survey (NCAS). Sydney: ANROWS.

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Source: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/family-domestic-and-sexual-violence

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