Intimate partner violence

• In NSW there are approximately 2,500 reports of domestic violence to the police every month – but this likely represents only 40% of actual incidents due to underreporting (NCOSS, 2020).
• According to the 2022 report (The National Homicide Monitoring Program),in 2019-20, there were 45 intimate partner homicides; 36 of these were female victims (80 per cent). This averages to approximately one woman being killed by an intimate partner every 10 days (Plan 4 Women’s Safety 2022).
• In 2018 intimate partner violence contributed to 1.4% of the total burden of disease and injury among Australian women (AIHW 2023)
• Australian women are nearly three times more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate partner (ABS, 2017).

General Violence

• 1 in 3 Australian women (30.5%) has experienced physical violence since the age of 15 (ABS, 2017).
• 1 in 5 Australian women (18.4%) has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 (ABS, 2017).
• 1 in 3 Australian women (34.2%) has experienced physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by a man since the age of 15 (ABS, 2017).
• Almost one in 10 women (9.4%) have experienced violence by a stranger since the age of 15 (ABS, 2017).

Young women

• Young women (18–24 years) experience significantly higher rates of physical and sexual violence than women in older age groups (ABS, 2017).
• Prevalence of sexual violence against women was highest for women in the 18–24 year age group (5.9%), with prevalence decreasing as age increased (AIHW 2023).

Disability

• Women with disability are more likely to experience violence (ABS, 2018).
• Women with disability report higher rates of past sexual violence and intimate partner violence than their male counterparts (AIHW 2022).
• 1 in 4 (25% or 748,000) women with disability have experienced sexual violence after the age of 15, compared with 15% (or 978,000) without disability
• (AIHW 2022).
• 2 in 5 (40% or 1.2 million) women with disability have experienced physical violence after the age of 15, compared with 26% (or 1.7 million) without disability
• (AIHW 2022).

Aboriginal

• 1 in 5 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women aged 15 and over has experienced physical violence in a 12-month period (ABS, 2016).
• Over one-third of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have experienced physical violence in the year preceding 2014-15 identified an intimate partner as the perpetrator of their most recent experience of physical violence (ABS, 2016).
• In 2016–17, Indigenous females aged 15 and over were 34 times as likely to be hospitalised for family violence as non-Indigenous females (AIHW 2019).
• Spouse or domestic partner was most commonly reported as the perpetrator for hospitalisations of Indigenous females aged 15 and over for assault injuries(62%, or 1,600 cases) (AIHW 2019).

LGBTQIA+

Although there are many similarities to experiences of domestic and family violence amongst heterosexual and cisgendered people, there are also important differences for LGBTIQA+ people; LGBTIQA+ people experience higher rates of discrimination, there are less specialised services to attend for support, and “outing” or threatening to “out” someone because of their gender or sexuality is a form of abuse which is common.

• One study has found that lesbian, bisexual and heteroflexible women are at least twice as likely to experience physical violence by a partner as heterosexual, cisgender women (AIHW, 2019).

Culturally and linguistically diverse

• There is a lack of comprehensive, population-wide data on prevalence and impacts of violence against women from migrant and refugee backgrounds. Specific studies suggest high prevalence rates and specific issues of complexity, such as partner using a woman’s temporary migrant status as a means of violence (AIHW, 2018).
• It appears there were at least 387 women on temporary visas experiencing violence accessing support services in Australia (National Advocacy Group on Women on Temporary Visas Experiencing Violence 2018).

Pregnancy

• Women who experience partner violence during pregnancy are 3 times as likely to experience depression (Brown et al., 2015).
• Pregnant women assaulted by a partner are more likely to experience injury to their trunk than other women (Brown et al., 2015).
• Violence during pregnancy can have health consequences for babies (Brown et al., 2015).
• Women who experienced domestic violence during pregnancy were more likely to suffer depression, and other physical and psychological health problems, compared with women who did not experience violence (AIHW 2019).

BOCSAR Statistics

• Number of domestic violence related assault offences from January 2022 to December 2022 – 33, 410 incidents.
• There were 7764 incidents of sexual assault from Jan 2022-December 2022 (BOCSAR 2023).

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Statistics

• 1 in 4 women and 1 in 14 men have experienced violence from an intimate partner since the age of 15.
• In 2021-22, 9 in 10 hospitalisations for assault injury by a partner were for females.