Landmark report reveals a woman dies every week due to Australia's domestic violence crisis

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The extent of Australia's family, domestic and sexual violence crisis has been revealed in a landmark report that details the death toll and increasing generational impacts of the issue.

For the first time, the government's Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has compiled comprehensive data on the prevalence of violence, finding that on average one woman a week and one man a month is killed by a current or former partner.

It also found family violence was a leading cause of homelessness, that the problem had grown in the past five years, and that millions of children had been physically or sexually abused.

"The seriousness of these issues cannot be overstated," AIHW CEO Barry Sandison said.

"Looking only at the numbers can at times appear to depersonalise the pain and suffering that sits behind the statistics."

The report made a number of key findings, including:

1 in 6 (1.6 million) women and 1 in 16 (500,000) men have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a cohabiting partner since age 15.

1 woman a week and 1 man a month were killed by a current or former partner in the two years from 2012-13 to 2013-14.

2,800 women and 560 men were hospitalised in 2014-15 after being assaulted by a spouse or partner.

72,000 women, 34,000 children and 9,000 men sought homelessness services in 2016-17 due to family/domestic violence.

Intimate partner violence causes more illness, disability and deaths than any other risk factor for women aged 25-44.

1 in 5 (1.7 million) women and 1 in 20 (429,000) men have been sexually assaulted and/or threatened since age 15.

1 in 6 (1.5 million) women and 1 in 9 (992,000) men were physically and/or sexually abused before the age of 15.

The AIHW compiled data from 20 major sources to build a picture of family violence in Australia.

It identified six groups most at risk of experiencing some form of violence or abuse: Indigenous women, young women, pregnant women, women with disabilities, women experiencing financial hardship, and people who had witnessed abuse as children.

Child abuse prevalent

Nearly 2.5 million Australians reported being physically or sexually abused before the age of 15, with young girls making up almost two thirds of those.

The AIHW report found children who were abused were three times as likely to experience domestic violence later in life.

This was having significant impacts on their mental health and living situation, the AIHW said.

"Children witnessing, or being exposed to, domestic violence is increasingly being recognised as a form of child abuse," the report reads.

"A large and growing number of children are placed in out-of-home care as a consequence of this abuse."

Indigenous at significant risk

Indigenous Australians are particularly over-represented in the data compiled in the AIHW report.

It found Indigenous women were 32 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence than non-Indigenous women, and Indigenous men were 23 times more likely.

Indigenous children were also seven times more likely to be victims of substantiated cases of child abuse or neglect.

The report found Indigenous Australians had increased risk factors for family violence, such as social stressors like poor housing and overcrowding, financial difficulties and unemployment.

"The removal of their land, and cultural dispossession, over the past 200 years have resulted in particular social, economic, physical, psychological and emotional problems for Indigenous Australians," the AIHW report reads.

'We need better data'

The AIHW found family violence in Australia had significant financial impact, costing "at least" $22 billion in direct costs (such as healthcare and welfare support) and indirect costs (such as lost wages).

Yet despite the impact, Mr Sandison said there remained inconsistent approaches to defining the issue and compiling data.

"We know that family, domestic and sexual violence is a major problem in Australia, but without a comprehensive source of evidence and analysis, tackling such a complex issue will continue to be difficult," he said.

The AIHW found a number of particular challenges with existing reporting procedures, including:

No consistent definition for family, domestic and sexual violence.

No consistent identification method to enable incidents to be captured and counted across jurisdictions.

Fragmented, dispersed and incomplete data about responses to family, domestic and sexual violence, partly due to the wide range of organisations and sectors involved.

Inability to reliably report on specific population groups.

Difficulty in distinguishing between victims and perpetrators in some data collections.

Lack of data about pathways, impacts and outcomes for victims and perpetrators.

AIHW spokesperson Louise York said addressing these issues would help form better responses to the problem.

"One of the reasons why we thought this report would be a very important service was to really try to understand not just the scale of the violence but what happens as a result," she said.

"Having a better understanding of how all of those responses can be brought to bear will hopefully go some way to helping inform future policy."

Topics: domestic-violence, community-and-society, australia