Our Watch
Understanding Violence
Our Watch Understanding Violence
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.
Get informed with these key statistics, facts and definitions.
Key facts
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
- 1 in 3 Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15.2
- 1 in 5 Australian women has experienced sexual violence.3
- 1 in 6 Australian women has experienced physical or sexual violence by current or former partner.4
- 1 in 4 Australian women has experienced emotional abuse by a current or former partner.5
- Australian women are nearly three times more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate partner.6
- Australian women are almost four times more likely than men to be hospitalised after being assaulted by their spouse or partner.7
- Women are more than twice as likely as men to have experienced fear or anxiety due to violence from a former partner.8
- 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.9
- Almost one in 10 women (9.4%) have experienced violence by a stranger since the age of 15.10
- Young women (18 – 24 years) experience significantly higher rates of physical and sexual violence than women in older age groups.11
- There is growing evidence that women with disabilities are more likely to experience violence.12
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women report experiencing violence in the previous.12 months at 3.1 times the rate of non-Indigenous women.13
- In 2014–15, Indigenous women were 32 times as likely to be hospitalised due to family violence as non-Indigenous women.14
What do we mean by violence against women?
Put simply, and using an internationally recognised definition, violence against women is any act of gender based violence that causes or could cause physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of harm or coercion, in public or in private life.12
As this definition makes clear, violence against women is not only or always physical. It includes psychological, economic, emotional and sexual violence and abuse, and a wide range of controlling, coercive and intimidating behaviours.
In Australia, violence against women is called many different things, including domestic violence, family violence, intimate partner violence, sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Here are some definitions of different kinds of violence, which demonstrate the different forms that violence against women can take:
Domestic violence
Domestic violence – refers to acts of violence that occur in domestic settings between two people who are, or were, in an intimate relationship. It includes physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and financial abuse.
Emotional/psychological violence
Emotional/psychological violence – can include a range of controlling behaviours such as control of finances, isolation from family and friends, continual humiliation, threats against children or being threatened with injury or death.
Family violence
Family violence – is a broader term than domestic violence, as it refers not only to violence between intimate partners but also to violence between family members. This includes, for example, elder abuse and adolescent violence against parents. Family violence includes violent or threatening behaviour, or any other form of behaviour that coerces or controls a family member or causes that family member to be fearful. In Indigenous communities, family violence is often the preferred term as it encapsulates the broader issue of violence within extended families, kinship networks and community relationships, as well as intergenerational issues.
Gender based violence
Gender based violence – violence that is specifically ‘directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately’.
Intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence – any behaviour by a man or a woman within an intimate relationship (including current or past marriages, domestic partnerships, familial relations, or people who share accommodation) that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm to those in the relationship. This is the most common form of violence against women.
Non-partner sexual assault
Non-partner sexual assault – sexual violence perpetrated by people such as strangers, acquaintances, friends, colleagues, peers, teachers, neighbours and family members.
These definitions are taken from Change the story: A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia. You can find the full glossary of terms on page 61-62.
The impact of violence against women
Violence against women and their children takes a profound and long-term toll on women and children’s health and wellbeing, on families and communities, and on society as a whole.
Intimate partner violence is the greatest health risk factor for women aged 25-44.15
Domestic or family violence against women is the single largest driver of homelessness for women,16 a common factor in child protection notifications,17 and results in a police call-out on average once every two minutes across the country.18
The combined health, administration and social welfare costs of violence against women have been estimated to be $21.7 billion a year, with projections suggesting that if no further action is taken to prevent violence against women, costs will accumulate to $323.4 billion over a thirty year period from 2014-15 to 2044-45.19
Children and young people are also affected by violence against women. Exposure to violence against their mothers or other caregivers causes profound harm to children, with potential impacts on attitudes to relationships and violence, as well as behavioural, cognitive and emotional functioning, social development, and – through a process of ‘negative chain effects’ – education and later employment prospects.20
Above all, violence against women is a fundamental violation of human rights, and one that Australia has an obligation to prevent under international law.21What about violence against men?All violence is wrong, regardless of the sex of the victim or perpetrator. But there are distinct gendered patterns in the perpetration and impact of violence.
For example, both women and men are more likely to experience violence at the hands of men, with around 95% of all victims of violence in Australia reporting a male perpetrator.22
While men are more likely to experience violence by other men in public places, women are more likely to experience violence from men they know, often in the home.23
The overwhelming majority of acts of domestic violence and sexual assault are perpetrated by men against women, and this violence is likely to have more severe impacts on female than male victims.22
Recognising the gendered patterns of violence doesn’t negate the experiences of male victims. But it does point to the need for an approach that looks honestly at what the research is telling us, and addresses the gendered dynamics of violence – this is what Our Watch seeks to do.
Our specific mandate is to prevent violence against women and their children, but promoting gender equality and respectful and non-violent relationships benefits the whole community, including men.
Violence against women key statistics
The National Community Attitudes Survey (NCAS) 2013 key findings NCAS, conducted by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), is a unique Australia-wide study designed to track how the population view issues related to violence against women.
Click to view NCAS 2013 – DOCX, 71KB
References
- Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) 2017. The 2017 National Homicide Monitoring Program report by the AIC showed that over a 2-year period from 2012/13 to 2013/14, there were 99 female victims of intimate partner homicide. Women continue to be over-represented as victims of intimate partner homicide, accounting for 79% of all intimate partner homicides.
- Australian Bureau of St