Research to policy and practice Violence against women in Australia: Additional analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Personal Safety Survey, 2012: Key findings and future directions
Compass
Research to policy and practice
Issue 02 | October 2015
Read the PDF version of this report
ANROWS Compass (Research to policy and practice papers) are concise papers that summarise key findings of research on violence against women and their children, including research produced under ANROWS’s research program, and provide advice on the implications for policy and practice.
This report addresses work covered in ANROWS research project 1.1 “Violence against women in Australia: Additional analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Personal Safety Survey, 2012”. Please consult the ANROWS website for more information on this project. In addition to this paper, an ANROWS Horizons is available as part of this project.
ANROWS acknowledgement
This material was produced with funding from the Australian Government and the Australian state and territory governments. Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) gratefully acknowledges the financial and other support it has received from these governments, without which this work would not have been possible. The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and cannot be attributed to the Australian Government, or any Australian state or territory government.
Acknowledgement of Country
ANROWS acknowledges the traditional owners of the land across Australia on which we work and live. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past, present and future; and we value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and knowledge.
© ANROWS 2015
Published by
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited (ANROWS)
PO Box 6322, Alexandria NSW 2015 | www.anrows.org.au | Phone +61 2 8374 4000
ABN 67 162 349 171
Sydney : ANROWS, c2015.
ISSN: 2204-9622 (print) 2204-9630 (online)
Creative Commons Licence
Attribution-Non Commercial
CC BY-NC
This licence lets others distribute, remix and build upon the work, but only if it is for non-commercial purposes and they credit the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties). They do not have to license their Derivative Works on the same terms.
Version 3.0 (CC Australia ported licence): View CC BY-NC Australia Licence Deed | View CC BY-NC 3.0 Australia Legal Code
Version 4.0 (international licence): View CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence Deed | View CC BY-NC 4.0 Legal Code
Design
Erin Snelgrove, GOOD MATTERS.
Introduction
The PSS is the most comprehensive quantitative study of interpersonal violence in Australia. The survey is administered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. Over 17,000 women and men completed the 2012 survey.
This ANROWS project provides substantial additional analysis of the data produced through the Australian Personal Safety Survey (PSS). The PSS is currently a largely untapped resource – even the publicly available PSS data has yet to be fully explored and applied to the most obviously relevant research and policy contexts.
The ANROWS PSS analysis provides several hundred new statistical items related to violence against women. Almost all the data is new – not only has this information not been readily available to the public before, but the data tables themselves have not been generated previously.
Limitations
The PSS is a complex tool for looking at a complex social problem. The PSS data is layered in a way that can make sub-population analysis difficult. Data becomes more fragile as more limitations are placed on it. Therefore, examination of sub-populations can be difficult because the estimates quickly become too unreliable for general use. Cross-referencing multiple contextual factors can also be difficult for the same reason, so that while extensive detail is available about incidents of violence, the ability to build an understanding of how these factors interact can be more limited.
A key limitation of the survey is that the ABS has difficulty in accessing and surveying a statistically valid sample of people from communities of interest, including women with a disability and women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Violence experienced by women and men
Violence is extremely common in Australia.
Men were more likely to be victims of physical violence while women were more likely to be victims of sexual violence.
Since the age of 15:
The violence experienced by men and women has some different characteristics.
Since the age of 15:
But it also has some similarities.
N.B. When compared to assaults by women.
In their most recent physical assault by a male:
Sexual assault
Many women in Australia are affected by sexual assault.
Almost all assaults are perpetrated by men.
Women are most likely to be sexually assaulted by a man known to them.
Certain characteristics are common to sexual assault incidents.
Regarding their most recent incident of sexual assault by a male:
Partner violence
Intimate partner violence is experienced by a quarter of women in Australia:
Since the age of 15:
Of the 2.2 million women who have experienced male intimate partner violence:
Since the age of 15:
Almost all violence between cohabiting partners happens in the home:
Cohabiting partner violence does not just affect the victim.
Since the age of 15:
It can be difficult to leave a violent relationship.
Since the age of 15:
Multiple victimisation
Many women experience violence multiple times in their life.
Some women experience violence both as a child and as an adult.
Experiencing both physical and sexual violence as an adult is a form of multiple victimisation.
Repeated violence by the same man is also a form of multiple victimisation.
Multiple victimisation affects some groups of women more than others.
Compass
Research to policy and practice
Issue 02 | October 2015
Read the PDF version of this report
ANROWS Compass (Research to policy and practice papers) are concise papers that summarise key findings of research on violence against women and their children, including research produced under ANROWS’s research program, and provide advice on the implications for policy and practice.
This report addresses work covered in ANROWS research project 1.1 “Violence against women in Australia: Additional analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Personal Safety Survey, 2012”. Please consult the ANROWS website for more information on this project. In addition to this paper, an ANROWS Horizons is available as part of this project.
ANROWS acknowledgement
This material was produced with funding from the Australian Government and the Australian state and territory governments. Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) gratefully acknowledges the financial and other support it has received from these governments, without which this work would not have been possible. The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and cannot be attributed to the Australian Government, or any Australian state or territory government.
Acknowledgement of Country
ANROWS acknowledges the traditional owners of the land across Australia on which we work and live. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past, present and future; and we value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and knowledge.
© ANROWS 2015
Published by
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited (ANROWS)
PO Box 6322, Alexandria NSW 2015 | www.anrows.org.au | Phone +61 2 8374 4000
ABN 67 162 349 171
Sydney : ANROWS, c2015.
ISSN: 2204-9622 (print) 2204-9630 (online)
Creative Commons Licence
Attribution-Non Commercial
CC BY-NC
This licence lets others distribute, remix and build upon the work, but only if it is for non-commercial purposes and they credit the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties). They do not have to license their Derivative Works on the same terms.
Version 3.0 (CC Australia ported licence): View CC BY-NC Australia Licence Deed | View CC BY-NC 3.0 Australia Legal Code
Version 4.0 (international licence): View CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence Deed | View CC BY-NC 4.0 Legal Code
Design
Erin Snelgrove, GOOD MATTERS.
Introduction
The PSS is the most comprehensive quantitative study of interpersonal violence in Australia. The survey is administered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. Over 17,000 women and men completed the 2012 survey.
This ANROWS project provides substantial additional analysis of the data produced through the Australian Personal Safety Survey (PSS). The PSS is currently a largely untapped resource – even the publicly available PSS data has yet to be fully explored and applied to the most obviously relevant research and policy contexts.
The ANROWS PSS analysis provides several hundred new statistical items related to violence against women. Almost all the data is new – not only has this information not been readily available to the public before, but the data tables themselves have not been generated previously.
Limitations
The PSS is a complex tool for looking at a complex social problem. The PSS data is layered in a way that can make sub-population analysis difficult. Data becomes more fragile as more limitations are placed on it. Therefore, examination of sub-populations can be difficult because the estimates quickly become too unreliable for general use. Cross-referencing multiple contextual factors can also be difficult for the same reason, so that while extensive detail is available about incidents of violence, the ability to build an understanding of how these factors interact can be more limited.
A key limitation of the survey is that the ABS has difficulty in accessing and surveying a statistically valid sample of people from communities of interest, including women with a disability and women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Violence experienced by women and men
Violence is extremely common in Australia.
Men were more likely to be victims of physical violence while women were more likely to be victims of sexual violence.
Since the age of 15:
The violence experienced by men and women has some different characteristics.
Since the age of 15:
But it also has some similarities.
N.B. When compared to assaults by women.
In their most recent physical assault by a male:
Sexual assault
Many women in Australia are affected by sexual assault.
Almost all assaults are perpetrated by men.
Women are most likely to be sexually assaulted by a man known to them.
Certain characteristics are common to sexual assault incidents.
Regarding their most recent incident of sexual assault by a male:
Partner violence
Intimate partner violence is experienced by a quarter of women in Australia:
Since the age of 15:
Of the 2.2 million women who have experienced male intimate partner violence:
Since the age of 15:
Almost all violence between cohabiting partners happens in the home:
Cohabiting partner violence does not just affect the victim.
Since the age of 15:
It can be difficult to leave a violent relationship.
Since the age of 15:
Multiple victimisation
Many women experience violence multiple times in their life.
Some women experience violence both as a child and as an adult.
Experiencing both physical and sexual violence as an adult is a form of multiple victimisation.
Repeated violence by the same man is also a form of multiple victimisation.
Multiple victimisation affects some groups of women more than others.