ABS' Personal Safety Survey found domestic violence against women decreased during 2021-2022

The Personal Safety Survey, conducted every five years and released on Wednesday, shows that for women, the rate of cohabiting partner violence decreased from 1.7 per cent to 0.9 per cent in 2021-2022, driven by a decrease in the rate of physical violence. The rate of sexual harassment also declined for both women (from 17 per cent in 2016 to 13 per cent in 2021-22) and men (from 9.3 per cent to 4.5 per cent).

In the ACT, the two-year prevalence rate for cohabiting partner emotional abuse declined from 7.9 per cent in 2016 to 3.7 per cent in the 2021-22 survey. Just over 73000 women in the ACT (over 40 per cent) have experienced violence, either physical and/or sexual), since the age of 15, including 43,800 who experienced sexual violence and 54,500 who experienced physical violence Between 2016 and 2021-22, the physical violence two-year prevalence rate remained relatively stable, according to the ABS data. The survey also reveals stark differences in the rates of family violence experienced by women living in Victoria, where numbers plunged, and NSW.

Monash University's Professor Kate FitzGibbon, who consulted to the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, says Victoria's strict lockdowns may have contributed but the true picture of what happened during that period will only emerge at the next survey.

"We will only know the true differences between states and territories when COVID is not playing such a significant role."

The rates of sexual violence have remained stable. FitzGibbon says efforts to address and better respond to and address sexual violence need to be addressed.

An estimated eight million Australians have experienced violence (physical and/or sexual) since the age of 15 and prevalence rates of sexual violence, physical violence and stalking remain stubbornly high and steady over the last five years, despite anti-violence campaigns.

Men are three times more likely to experience violence at the hands of a stranger. Women are 40 per cent more likely to experience violence from someone they know.

The University of Melbourne's Kristin Diemer, whose research focuses on family and domestic violence, says the ABS research contradicts international surveys during the pandemic period, which showed increased family violence.

Associate Professor Diemer says one explanation may be that in Australia, some of the measures introduced by governments, including extra financial support, may have reduced some stressors on families.

"There may be some greater social cohesion because families were working against the pandemic. We may have seen some harmonisation in families," says Diemer.

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The survey also shows the prevalence of economic abuse, when a person's access to economic resources is controlled or restricted by their partner. The survey showed one in six women and one in thirteen men experienced economic abuse during the survey period.

Will Milne, director of the ABS's National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics, says the sample size was nearly halved for this survey because of limitations imposed by pandemic restrictions. He says the next survey should return to the original sample size. The PSS is conducted face-to-face.

Of the results, he says: "The surprise was that expectations were that everything would go up in terms of violence but the data showed a different story."

Monash University's FitzGibbon says the results of the survey confirm the nature of gendered violence in Australia.

"Women are far more likely to experience violence where they should have the highest level of trust, at home with their intimate partners, their families, whereas men are most likely to experience violence from a stranger," she says.

FitzGibbon welcomes the additions to the survey, which now includes economic abuse but says that in many instances, economic and emotional abuse can overlap to form part of a pattern of abuse.

"These are not discrete or separable experiences and so often women experience many types of violence within a relationship."

The University of Melbourne's Diemer says the rate of violence is still unacceptably high and that men continue to be violent against both women and men.

"We need to be investing more in programs for younger people, even earlier in their lives, from the time they are born, from how we parent to how we relate to children.

"We are still seeing an increase in sexual violence. We need to have conversations around consent and negotiating that consent."

The CEO of ANROWS, the national women's safety research organisation, Padma Raman, says the survey results make clear there needs to be more done to reach men and boys around consent and to support victims.

Last year, ANROWS released research which showed one in two survivors said there had been a time when they needed support but could not access it.