11th October, 2004

Fifty-seven per cent of women have reported experiencing at least one incident of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime according to a survey conducted by researchers at the Australian Institute of Criminology.

The nationwide survey of more than 6,600 women aged from 18 to 69 years was conducted between December 2002 and June 2003.

It found that those who had reported experiencing an incident of violence were more likely to experience physical rather than sexual violence.

More than a third of women who had a current or former partner said they had experienced violence at a partner’s hands while forty per cent said that since the age of 16 they had experienced at least one incident of violence at the hands of an other relative, known male or a stranger.

The study also found that 29 per cent of women said they had experienced either physical or sexual violence before the age of 16. Women who had experienced abuse during childhood were one and a half times more likely to experience violence as an adult.

Ten per cent of the women surveyed reported experiencing at least one incident of violence within the last 12 months.

- DAVID ADAMS