Statistics

The VicHealth Report 2009 states the following statistics:

  • 31% women assaulted in the last 12 months  were assaulted by a current or previous partner, 28% by a male family member or friend, 12% another male person.
  • 78% of women who had been sexually assaulted since the age of 15 were assaulted by someone known to them.
  • 74.9% of all assaults against women occurred in the home.

Canadian data indicates that compared with male victims of relationship violence, women are:

  • Three times more likely to be injured as a result of violence.
  • Five times more likely to require medical attention or hospitalisation.
  • Five times more likely to report fearing for their lives (Statistics Canada 2003).

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 2006) found that:

  • One in three women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15.
  • Nearly one in five women had experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
  • 16% of women had experienced violence by a current or previous partner since the age of 15.
  • 36% of women who experienced partner violence were pregnant at the time of the violence.

These figures do not include other forms of violence (such as emotional abuse and social and/or financial control).

    • In Australia from 1989-98, 57% of female deaths resulting from homicide or violence, were perpetuated by an intimate partner. (Mouzos 1999).
    • Intimate partner violence contributes 7.9% to the disease burden in Victorian women age 15-44 years, making it the largest known contributor to the preventable disease burden in this age bracket (VicHealth 2004).
    • In the ABS Personal Safety Survey, 34% of women experiencing violence by a current partner and 39% of those by a former partner reported that the violence was witnessed by children in their care (ABS 2006).
    • 97% of clients who needed emergency housing due to violence, were women (VicHealth 2004-2005).

Violence against women has an estimated cost of $8.1 billion (Access Economics 2004).