Bureau of Statistics finds one in five women have experienced sexual violence but overall rate of violence is dropping

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The proportion of women suffering sexual violence in Australia has increased noticeably since 2012, despite the rate of violence declining overall.

The Bureau of Statistics has released new data on “personal safety” that focuses on partner violence, emotional abuse, sexual harassment, threats of physical assault and episodes of stalking in Australia.

The data is based on a survey of roughly 21,250 people aged 18 years and over, conducted between November 2016 to June 2017.

According to the data, the proportion of Australians who have experienced violence in the last 12 months has declined significantly over the last decade (with “violence” defined as any incident involving the occurrence, attempt or threat of either physical or sexual assault experienced by a person since the age of 15).

The proportion of Australians who experienced violence in the last 12 months has fallen from 8.3% in 2005 to just 5.4% in 2016, driven by a large drop in experiences of physical violence.

For men, the proportion who have experienced physical violence in the past 12 months has almost halved in the last decade, from 10% in 2005 to 5.4% in 2016, while for women that figure has fallen from 4.7% to 3.5%.

But the rate of sexual violence against women has increased noticeably in the last five years.

The ABS defines “sexual violence” as the occurrence, attempt or threat of sexual assault experienced by a person since the age of 15.

It defines “sexual assault” as an act of a sexual nature carried out against a person’s will through the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion, including any attempts to do so. It includes rape, attempted rape, aggravated sexual assault (assault with a weapon), indecent assault, penetration by objects, forced sexual activity that did not end in penetration and attempts to force a person into sexual activity. Incidents so defined would be an offence under state and territory criminal law.

The proportion of women who have experienced sexual violence in the last 12 months increased from 1.2% in 2012 to 1.8% in 2016.



It means one in five women (18% or 1.7 million) have now experienced sexual violence, with sexual assault experienced by 17% of women (1.5 million) and sexual threat experienced by 3.6% (339,900).



One in 20 men (4.7% or 428,800) have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15, with sexual assault experienced by 4.3% of men (384,000) and sexual threat experienced by 0.8% (73,500).

The survey also found women are far more like to be stalked.

One in six women (17% or 1.6 million) aged 18 or over and one in 15 men (6.5% or 587,000) have experienced an episode of stalking since the age of 15, with the vast majority of stalkers being men.

Roughly 94% of these women (1.5 million) were stalked by a male and approximately 10% (160,700) were stalked by a female (some women have been stalked by both men and women).

Of the women who experienced an episode of stalking by a male, the most common stalking behaviours experienced in the most recent episode were:



maintained unwanted contact by phone, postal mail, email, text messages or social media websites (50% or 747,500)

loitered or hung around outside their home (47% or 691,200)

followed or watched them in person (42% or 627,300).

Of the women who experienced an episode of stalking by a female (160,700), the most common stalking behaviour experienced in the most recent episode was:

maintained unwanted contact by phone, postal mail, email, text messages or social media websites (58% or 92,500).

Men who had experienced an episode of stalking (587,000) were as likely to have experienced stalking by a male stalker 54% (316,700) as by a female stalker 51% (300,100).