And very few such incidents have been reported to police.
Meanwhile, half of all women have been sexually harassed, and one in six have been sexually harassed over the past year.
That’s all according to new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today via the Personal Safety Survey, which asked 21,000 people about their experiences of violence before and since the age of 15.
The study found the proportion of Australians experiencing physical violence in the past 12 months dropped from 7.5% in 2005 to 4.5% in 2016.
However, the proportion of women experiencing sexual violence has actually increased from 1.2% in 2012 to 1.8% in 2016. Eighteen per cent of women said they have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
Data from the 2016 Personal Safety Survey shows violence prevalence is 1 of Australia’s most pressing social issues. https://t.co/wDBG3a12PF pic.twitter.com/e6aYnCstdA
— AU Bureau of Stats (@ABSStats) November 8, 2017
Some of the stats key stats from the study:
- Two in 5 people 18 or over have experienced an incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 15, including 42% of men and 37% of women
- Four in 10 men and 3 in 10 women have experienced physical violence
- One in 5 women and 1 in 20 men have experienced sexual violence
- More than 1 in 3 people have experienced violence by a male perpetrator since the age of 15, and 1 in 10 by a female perpetrator
- One in 4 women have experienced violence by an intimate partner, compared to 1 in 13 men
- One in 4 men experienced violence by a stranger, compared to 1 in 11 women
- For both men and women, their most recent incident of physical assault by a male was likely to have occurred in a home (65%)
- The majority (69%) of men and women who experienced physical assault by a male did not report the most recent incident to police
- In the most recent incident of sexual assault by a male, 87% of women were most likely to experience sexual assault by a male they knew, and 9 in 10 women did not contact the police.
- One in 6 women and 1 in 17 men have experienced physical violence by a partner.
- One in 4 women and 1 in 6 men have experience emotional abuse by a currentor previous partner
- One in 6 women and 1 in 10 men have experienced abuse before the age of 15.
- One in 2 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced sexual harassment during their lifetime.
The 2016 Personal Safety Survey presents data on experiences of partner violence. https://t.co/TX1roJ4SHJ pic.twitter.com/q5aJLa2lol
— AU Bureau of Stats (@ABSStats) November 8, 2017