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Data sources and technical notes

Building a comprehensive picture of family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV) requires information to be drawn from many different data sources. These pages provide information on the key national data sources used to report on the prevalence, responses to, and outcomes of, family, domestic and sexual violence.

The technical notes below include some further information about relevant definitions or methodological issues that may affect the interpretation of reported data. Where specific definitions related to FDSV are available, these are included below. Broad definitions and general terms used across multiple topic pages in the AIHW’s FDSV reporting are defined in the Glossary

ABS Causes of Death

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

Statistics presented in Causes of Death, Australia are sourced from death registrations administered by the various state and territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages. It is a legal requirement of each state and territory that all deaths are registered. In addition, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) supplements these data with information from the National Coronal Information System (NCIS) for those deaths certified by a coroner.

Technical notes

  • The ABS accesses the National Coronial Information System (NCIS) to obtain causes of death information for coroner referred deaths including suicides. Information regarding the causes of death and associated factors is obtained from various reports including police, toxicology, autopsy and coronial findings.
  • Deaths may be coded as due to intentional self-harm (suicide) when:
    • A coroner makes a formal finding stating the death was due to suicide.
    • If a formal finding is not made (i.e. the coroner does not state the intent), an investigation of information on the NCIS may indicate a death was due to suicide. For example, indications by the person that they intended to take their own life, the presence of a suicide note, or knowledge of previous suicide attempts.  
    • For an open coronial investigation, the police may record the death as being a suspected suicide. Open cases are reviewed by the ABS when closed as part of the annual revisions process.
  • As part of the investigative process for a suicide, risk factors are often mentioned in these reports. While a risk factor may have been present in the life of a person who died by suicide it may not have been a direct cause. The risk factors mentioned in the NCIS reports are coded by the ABS within the framework of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10).
  • Psychosocial risk factors include ICD-10 codes Z00-Z99. Data on psychosocial risk factors do not indicate the extent or involvement of FDV in a death by suicide, however, information recorded on psychosocial risk factors can provide some insight on related factors. For example, ‘problems in spousal relationship circumstances’ (Z63.0, Z63.5) and ‘problems related to alleged sexual abuse of child by person within primary support group’ (Z61.4).

ABS Criminal Courts

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National, state/territory

The ABS Criminal Courts, Australia presents information on the characteristics of defendants finalised by Australian state and territory criminal courts. This includes information on the offences, case outcomes and sentences associated with those defendants.

FDSV definitions

  • FDV can include a wide range of violent and non-violent abusive behaviours or threats, such as physical and sexual violence or abuse, emotional and psychological abuse, verbal abuse and intimidation, economic abuse, social deprivation and controlling behaviours, damage of personal property and abuse of power.
  • The types of relationships involved in FDV can include intimate partner relationships, other family and co-habitation relationships, siblings, children, carer relationships, cultural and kinship relationships, foster care relationships and relatives who do not co-habit.
  • In the experimental FDV statistics, FDV offences are largely identified by an indicator (or ‘flag’) that is recorded by either the police and/or courts. The experimental FDV statistics are limited to the following ANZSOC Division/Sub-division offences:
    • 01 Homicide and related offences (011 Murder, 012 Attempted murder and 013 Manslaughter and driving causing death)
    • 02 Acts intended to cause injury (021 Assault and 029 Other acts intended to cause injury)
    • 03 Sexual assault and related offences (031 Sexual assault and 032 Non-assaultive sexual offences)
    • 049 Other dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons
    • 05 Abduction/harassment (051 Abduction and kidnapping, 052 Deprivation of liberty and 053 Harassment and threatening behaviour)
    • 121 Property damage
    • 1531 Breach of violence order.

Technical notes

  • The categories used for defendant sex are: male, female, organisations, other and unknown. The number of defendants in the category of ‘other’ is currently not published due to small numbers and inconsistent use, though these defendants are included within the total.
  • Differences in how FDV offences are identified, charged by police and dealt with in the courts system, which can vary across states and territories due to different legislative practices, can impact on the offence data presented. For example, the way in which Breach of violence orders are charged and prosecuted by police can differ across states and territories, thereby resulting in issues of data comparability for the breach offences, as well as other associated offence data.
  • A principal offence is the most serious offence type of which a person has been proceeded against during the reference period. For defendants finalised with a single offence type, this is their principal offence. For defendants with multiple offence charges finalised at the same time, the following are used to assign a principal offence:
    • Method of finalisation group
    • Sentence type and length/amount imposed
    • National Offence Index (NOI) ranking.
  • From 2019–20 onwards, in ABS Criminal Courts reporting, ‘Transfers to other court levels’ (transfers) was excluded from finalised defendant counts in some tables to remove the double-counting of defendants who were transferred and subsequently adjudicated in a different court level. Excluding transfers enables a more accurate representation of defendant characteristics, particularly for more serious offences where transfers are more common. For this reason, unless otherwise stated, ‘finalised’ defendants refers to all defendants whose cases were finalised by methods other than ‘Transfer to other court levels’. This includes: defendants whose method of finalisation was acquitted, guilty outcome or withdrawn by prosecution; defendants for whom a method of finalisation could not be determined; defendants deceased or unfit to plead; and defendants finalised through transfers to non-court agencies and other non-adjudicated finalisations. The finalisation method, acquitted, includes a determination by the court that: the defendant is not guilty, or is free from a criminal charge; the defendant is not guilty of a criminal charge(s) by reason of mental illness/condition; there is insufficient evidence to commit the defendant to a higher court for trial; a criminal charge(s) has not been proven, for reasons not described elsewhere. For example, where the charge is struck out, or dismissed by a member of the judiciary due to delays in proceedings or insufficient evidence provided by the prosecution. 
  • A sentence is the punishment the court gives a person who has been found guilty of an offence.
  • Non-custodial orders are sentences that do not involve being held in custody (e.g. fines, community service orders, good behaviour bonds). Other non-custodial orders include good behaviour bond/recognisance orders, licence disqualification/suspension/amendment, forfeiture of property order, nominal penalty and other non-custodial orders not elsewhere classified.
  • For 2017–18 and prior years, the principal offence is based on the method of finalisation and NOI only. The 2020–21 publication introduced sentence type and length/amount to the principal offence allocation rule, for data from 2018–19 onwards.

ABS Personal Safety Survey (PSS)

Type: Survey

Frequency: Every 4 years

Coverage: National, state/territory

The ABS PSS collects information from women and men aged 18 and over about the nature and extent of violence experienced since the age of 15. It also collected detailed information about men's and women's experience of current and previous partner violence and emotional abuse, experiences of stalking since the age of 15, sexual and physical abuse before the age of 15, witnessing of violence between a parent and their partner before the age of 15, lifetime experience of sexual harassment, and general feelings of safety.

The scope of the 2021–22 Personal Safety Survey was persons aged 18 years and over residing in private dwellings across Australia (excluding very remote areas). Interviews were conducted throughout Australia from March 2021 to May 2022 with one randomly selected person aged 18 years or over who was a usual resident of the selected household. A final response rate of 52% was achieved, with 11,900 people completing the entire questionnaire nationally – 9,800 women and 2,100 men. The final data was benchmarked and weighted to be representative of the in-scope population.  

FDSV definitions

  • Family and domestic violence is defined as any violence that occurs where the Personal Safety Survey (PSS) relationship of respondent to perpetrator is current or previous partner; father or mother; son or daughter; brother or sister; other relative or in-law; boyfriend, girlfriend or date; ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend.
  • The PSS defines partner as a person the respondent lives with, or lived with at some point in a married or de facto relationship. A current partner is a person who, at the time of the survey, was living with the respondent in a marriage or de-facto relationship, and a previous partner is a person who lived with the respondent at some point in a marriage or de facto relationship, but who was no longer living with the respondent at the time of the survey.
  • The PSS defines an intimate partner as a person who is either the current or previous partner; boyfriend, girlfriend or date; or ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend of the respondent.
  • Physical violence is the occurrence, attempt or threat of physical assault.
  • Physical assault is any incident that involves the use of physical force, with the intent to harm or frighten a person. An assault may have occurred in conjunction with a robbery, and includes incidents that occurred on the job, where a person was assaulted in their line of work (e.g. assaulted while working as a security guard), at school, or overseas. Physical force includes:
    • Pushed, grabbed or shoved
    • Slapped
    • Kicked, bitten or hit with a fist
    • Hit with something else that could hurt
    • Beaten
    • Choked
    • Stabbed with a knife
    • Shot with a gun
    • any other type of physical assault.
  • Physical assault excludes incidents that occurred during the course of play on a sporting field and incidents of physical assault that occurred before the age of 15 (these are defined as physical abuse).
  • Physical abuse is any deliberate physical injury (including bruises) inflicted upon a child (under the age of 15 years) by an adult. This excludes discipline that accidentally resulted in injury, emotional abuse, and physical abuse perpetrated by someone under the age of 18.
  • Sexual violence is the occurrence, attempt or threat of sexual assault. Incidents that occurred before the age of 15, are not counted within the totals for ‘violence’, but are counted separately as physical or sexual abuse.
  • Sexual assault refers to 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 this. This 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.
  • Sexual abuse is any act by an adult involving a child (under the age of 15 years) in sexual activity beyond their understanding or contrary to currently accepted community standards. It excludes emotional abuse and sexual abuse perpetrated by someone under the age of 18.
  • Sexual harassment is considered to have occurred when a person has experienced or been subjected to behaviours which made them feel uncomfortable and were offensive due to their sexual nature.
  • Emotional abuse occurs when a person is subjected to certain behaviours or actions that are aimed at preventing or controlling their behaviour, causing them emotional harm or fear. These behaviours are characterised in nature by their intent to manipulate, control, isolate or intimidate the person they are aimed at. They are generally repeated behaviours and include psychological, social, economic and verbal abuse.
  • To be classified as ‘stalking’ in the PSS 2021–22, more than one type of the following behaviours had to occur, or the same type of behaviour occurred on more than one occasion:
    • loitered or hung around outside respondent’s home, workplace, place of leisure or social activities
    • followed or watched them in person or using an electronic tracking device (such as GPS tracking system or computer spyware)
    • maintained unwanted contact with them by phone, postal mail, email, text messages or social media websites
    • posted offensive or unwanted messages, images or personal information about them on the internet
    • impersonated them online to damage their reputation
    • hacked or accessed their email, social media or other online account without their consent to follow or track them
    • gave or left objects where they could be found that were offensive or disturbing
    • interfered with or damaged any of their property.

Technical notes

  • Separate counts are not able to be added together to produce a total. Where a person has experienced more than one type of violence or abuse, or by different perpetrator types, they are counted separately for each type they experienced but are counted only once in any aggregate totals.
  • Figures are rounded and components may not add to total because of ABS confidentiality and perturbation processes. Due to these processes, figures may differ from those published by the ABS and across tables.
  • The PSS collects information from people aged 18 years and over.
  • The PSS asks adult respondents about their experiences of physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by an adult before the age of 15. Because the survey asks persons aged 18 years and over about their experiences of abuse before the age of 15, it does not provide estimates of the current prevalence of abuse experienced by children.
  • Some provided estimates are considered too unreliable for general use and should be used with caution. Additionally, some estimates by sex and experience of violence categories are considered too unreliable for publication and are not published by the ABS.
  • In this collection, data relating to sex was based on a survey where respondents were asked to identify household members as ‘male’ or ‘female’. If someone identified as a transgender or intersex person, the interviewer was instructed to ask the respondent to identify which sex the household member most closely identified as. If this could not be provided, the interviewer selected either male or female (alternating between them as they occurred). The 2021–22 survey was developed prior to the introduction of the Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables in 2020. The ABS recognises the importance of collecting data in line with these standards, and future iterations of the PSS will work towards standardising and expanding the PSS collection relating to sex, gender and sexual orientation.
  • For reporting purposes, 'Persons' is used to refer to all respondents.

ABS Recorded Crime – Offenders

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

ABS Recorded Crime – Offenders presents statistics about the characteristics of alleged offenders who were proceeded against by police during a 12-month reference period. The collection provides a profile of alleged offenders, including their age, sex, Indigenous status, principal offence, how often they have been proceeded against by police within the reference period, as well as a count of proceedings that may result in court or non-court actions.

Technical notes

  • ABS Recorded Crime data include offences classified to selected divisions and/or subdivisions of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC):
    • Homicide and related offences includes murder, attempted murder and manslaughter.
    • Assault refers to the direct infliction of force, injury, or violence upon a person or persons, or the direct threat of force, injury, or violence where there is an apprehension that the threat could be enacted. Includes serious assault resulting in injury, serious assault not resulting in injury, and common assault.
    • Sexual assault refers to any physical contact, or intent of contact, of a sexual nature directed toward another person where that person does not give consent, gives consent as a result of intimidation or deception, or consent is unable to be given because of youth, temporary/permanent (mental) incapacity or familial relationship.
      Sexual assault aligns with ANZSOC subdivision 031 Sexual assault, which includes 2 classification groups: 0311 Aggravated sexual assault and 0312 Non-aggravated sexual assault:
      • Aggravated sexual assault: Incest, rape, intent/attempt to commit rape, administering of drugs with intent to rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, unlawful fellatio/cunnilingus, carnal knowledge and assault with the intent to commit a sexual act.
      • Non-aggravated sexual assault includes: threat of sexual assault and indecent assault not including aggravating circumstances.
    • Kidnapping/abduction refers to the unlawful confinement of a person against that person's will, or against the will of any parent, guardian or other person having lawful custody or care of that person. Due to small numbers, these data are not explored separately.
    • Stalking refers to acts intended to cause physical or mental harm to a person, or to arouse apprehension or fear in a person, through a repeated course of unreasonable conduct. Offences that fall within this definition are categorised under group 0291 stalking in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC). The following offences are excluded from ANZSOC group 0291 stalking:
      • Harassment where there is no indication that the behaviour is intended to cause physical or mental harm, or arouse apprehension or fear
      • Nuisance phone calls.

New South Wales legislation does not contain discrete offences of stalking, intimidation and harassment. Since these offences cannot be disaggregated, offenders have been coded to ANZSOC group 0291 stalking. Hence, this group may be overstated and caution should be used when making comparisons with other states and territories.

  • Data relating to sex is based on the details recorded by police and is not always recorded. Where the offender is a person, sex is categorised as ‘male’, ‘female’ or ‘Not stated/inadequately described’.
  • Sexual assault against a child is a form of child sexual abuse. ABS Recorded crime data uses the term sexual assault irrespective of age. 
  • Recorded Crime - Offenders data reflect a count of unique alleged offenders, irrespective of how many offences they may have committed within the same incident, or how many times police dealt with them during the reference period. Where an offender allegedly committed more than 1 offence, the principal offence during the reference period, defined as per the ABS National Offence Index, is recorded. It should be noted that alleged offences recorded in offenders’ statistics may be later withdrawn or not be substantiated. Offenders data also include both court or non-court actions (for example warnings, conferencing, diversion). An individual offender may have more than one police proceeding recorded in the same reference period.
  • Age of offenders is calculated from the earliest date a person was proceeded against by police during the reference period. Persons under the age of 10 are excluded from the collection as the minimum age of criminal responsibility in all Australian states and territories is 10 years.
  • The number of police-recorded offenders do not align with the number of recorded victims nor the proceeding counts due to different counting rules, different reference periods, and variation in the time between when a crime is recorded and when police identify an offender. In some cases, police may never identify offenders.
  • The FDV data included in the 2021-22 collection are experimental only and further work on data comparability and quality are required.
  • FDV related data are derived using two variables – an FDV flag and relationship of offender to victim. Relationship data are not available for Tasmania and Northern Territory, inclusion in FDV reporting is based on FDV flag only.
  • Family member total includes partner, ex-partner, other family member and other family member not further defined.
  • Partner includes de-facto, spouse, boyfriend and girlfriend.
  • Ex-partner includes separated partner, ex-spouse, ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend.
  • Other family member includes parent, child, sibling, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, cousin, grandparent and other family member not elsewhere classify
  • Police proceedings are the legal action initiated against an alleged offender for an offence(s). 
  • Violence and non-violence orders are issued by a civil court and stipulate conditions that must be obeyed, such as preventing a person from threatening, contacting, tracking or attempting to locate the protected person, and preventing a person from being within a certain distance of the protected person. An act or omission which breaches the conditions of these orders is a criminal offence.

ABS Recorded Crime – Victims

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National, state/territory

ABS Recorded Crime – Victims presents statistics about victims of selected offences that came to the attention of, and were recorded by police during a 12-month reference period. Selected characteristics about the victim (including sex and age) or incident (including weapon use and location) are also presented, as well as the outcome of the police investigation at 30 days from the time of report. Information about the relationship of the offender to the victim and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status of the victim is also presented for selected states and territories.

FDSV definitions

  • FDV related data are derived using two variables – an FDV flag and relationship of offender to victim. 
  • Family member total includes partner, ex-partner, other family member and other family member not further defined.
  • Partner includes de-facto, spouse, boyfriend and girlfriend.
  • Ex-partner includes separated partner, ex-spouse, ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend.
  • Other family member includes parent, child, sibling, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, cousin, grandparent and other family member not elsewhere classified.

Technical notes

  • Data presented in data downloads may include additional years or disaggregations to those available in-text or in data visualisations.
  • Recorded Crime - Victims data do not reflect unique people. If a person is the victim of multiple incidents recorded by police throughout the reference period, each unique incident is counted. Where incidents include multiple offences that fall under different ANZSOC offence categories, each different offence category is counted once per incident. Police record all incidents, which they believe to be criminal offences, that they detect or are reported by a victim, witness or other person. However, where an investigation concludes that a crime was not committed, records are excluded. Data do not included incidents of crime that are not recorded by police. Victimisation rates are expressed as the count of these incidents in a reference period per 100,000 of the ABS Estimated Resident Population.
  • The number of police-recorded victims do not align with the number of recorded offenders due to different counting rules, different reference periods, and variation in the time between when a crime is recorded and when police identify an offender. In some cases, police may never identify offenders.
  • Data have been randomly adjusted to avoid the release of confidential data and discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.
  • Small numbers should be used with caution.
  • Caution should be used when comparing data across states and territories or time periods due to differences between, and changes to, data collection practices. Of relevance to data presented:
    • Sexual assault data for Western Australia are understated prior to 2017
    • Sexual assault data for Victoria from 2010–2012 are not directly comparable with data published for 2013 onwards
    • Location of offence data prior to 2021 may not be comparable to other years due to coding changes in Western Australia and a decrease in sexual assault victims where the location was not specified in New South Wales
    • Weapon use was overstated in Queensland prior to 2020
    •  Outcome of investigation, location of offence, weapon use and/or relationship of offender to victim data prior to 2019 may not be comparable to other years due to South Australia system changes
    • Northern Territory data may include victim counts for those situations where police have determined after investigation that 'no crime' has occurred
    • New South Wales data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims from 2022 cannot be compared to earlier reference periods due to a recording change for the Indigenous status data item.
  • ABS Recorded Crime collections are based on crimes reported to police in each state and territory and published according to the National Crime Recording Standard categories. ABS Recorded Crime data include offences classified to selected divisions and/or subdivisions of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC):
    • Homicide and related offences includes murder, attempted murder and manslaughter, but excludes driving causing death and conspiracy to murder. Attempted murder is an attempted unlawful killing of another person, where there is either the intent to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm with the knowledge that it was probable that death or grievous bodily harm would occur (reckless indifference to life), not resulting in death.
    • Assault refers to the direct infliction of force, injury, or violence upon a person or persons, or the direct threat of force, injury, or violence where there is an apprehension that the threat could be enacted. Includes serious assault resulting in injury, serious assault not resulting in injury, and common assault.
    • Sexual assault refers to any physical contact, or intent of contact, of a sexual nature directed toward another person where that person does not give consent, gives consent as a result of intimidation or deception, or consent is unable to be given because of youth, temporary/permanent (mental) incapacity or familial relationship.
      Sexual assault aligns with ANZSOC subdivision 031 Sexual assault, which includes 2 classification groups: 0311 Aggravated sexual assault and 0312 Non-aggravated sexual assault:
      • Aggravated sexual assault: Incest, rape, intent/attempt to commit rape, administering of drugs with intent to rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, unlawful fellatio/cunnilingus, carnal knowledge and assault with the intent to commit a sexual act.
      • Non-aggravated sexual assault includes: threat of sexual assault and indecent assault not including aggravating circumstances.
    • Kidnapping/abduction refers to the unlawful confinement of a person against that person's will, or against the will of any parent, guardian or other person having lawful custody or care of that person. Due to small numbers, these data are not explored separately.
    • Stalking refers to acts intended to cause physical or mental harm to a person, or to arouse apprehension or fear in a person, through a repeated course of unreasonable conduct. Offences that fall within this definition are categorised under group 0291 stalking in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC). The following offences are excluded from ANZSOC group 0291 stalking:
      • Harassment where there is no indication that the behaviour is intended to cause physical or mental harm, or arouse apprehension or fear
      • Nuisance phone calls.

New South Wales legislation does not contain discrete offences of stalking, intimidation and harassment. Since these offences cannot be disaggregated, offenders have been coded to ANZSOC group 0291 stalking. Hence, this group may be overstated and caution should be used when making comparisons with other states and territories.

  • Assault data are not available for Victoria and Queensland, and therefore Australia.
  • Relationship data are not available for Western Australia, inclusion in FDV reporting is based on FDV flag only. Data presented by relationship are based on data from all other states and territories.
  • There are some inconsistencies in the coding of relationship of offender to victim between states and territories which should be considered when making comparisons:
    •  New South Wales data for family member may be overstated and data for non-family member understated as ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend are included in 'boyfriend/girlfriend'
    • Northern Territory data for family member may be understated and data for non-family member overstated as some boyfriends/girlfriends may be included in 'other non-family member n.e.c.'
    • Queensland data for 'intimate partner' may be understated as some ex-boyfriends/girlfriends may be included in 'other non-family member n.e.c.'
    • Northern Territory data for 'intimate partner' may be understated as some boyfriends/girlfriends may be included in 'other non-family member n.e.c.'.
  • Generally, age of victims is reported as the age victims were when they first became known to the police (age at report), however, some sexual assault data may also be explored by age at incident. Age at incident for sexual assault was added in recent years because of the high proportion of incidents reported to police more than a year after the incident.
  • Sexual assault against a child is a form of child sexual abuse. ABS Recorded crime data uses the term sexual assault irrespective of age.
  • Data relating to sex is based on the details recorded by police and is not always recorded. Where the victim is a person, sex is recorded as ‘male’, ‘female’ or ‘Not stated/inadequately described’. 'Persons' includes victims for whom sex was not specified.
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims data only published for New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
  • A weapon is defined as any object that can be used to cause injury or fear of injury in the commission of a crime. It also includes imitation weapons and implied weapons (for example, where a weapon is not seen by the victim but the offender claims to possess one). Parts of the body such as fists and feet are not included as a weapon.
  • An investigation is finalised when the case is no longer considered open and an offender has been proceeded against through court action or non-court action, or an offender was not proceeded against as a result of either the circumstances of the alleged offender, or because the offence could not be verified. Cases where the investigation has not been finalised and no offender has been proceeded against at the time of recording the outcome includes cases where the investigation is ongoing or pending/suspended.

AHRC national survey on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces

Type: Survey

Frequency: 2003, 2008, 2012, 2018, 2022

Coverage: National

The AHRC national survey investigates the prevalence, nature and reporting of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. For the first time in 2022, the survey also asked about workers’ views on the actions taken by their employer’s action to address workplace sexual harassment.

The 2022 National Survey was conducted between August and September 2022, both online and by telephone, with a sample of over 10,000 Australians aged 15 or older. The survey measured people’s experiences of sexual harassment over the course of their lifetimes. Anyone who had been in the workforce at any time in the last 5 years was also asked about their experience of sexual harassment in their workplace at any time during that period and the timing of the most recent incident. The survey is representative of the Australian population in terms of gender, age and geographic location.

FDSV definitions

In the survey, sexual harassment is a broad term that encompasses many behaviours and harms. The prevalence of sexual harassment was measured 2 ways: 

  • The legal definition: sexual harassment is an unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature which, in the circumstances, a reasonable person, aware of those circumstances, would anticipate the possibility that the person would feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.
  • The following behaviours:
    • unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering or kissing
    • inappropriate staring or leering that made you feel intimidated
    • sexual gestures, indecent exposure or inappropriate display of the body
    • sexually suggestive comments or jokes that made you feel offended
    • repeated or inappropriate invitations to go out on dates
    • intrusive questions about your private life or physical appearance that made you feel offended
    • inappropriate physical contact
    • being followed, watched or someone loitering nearby
    • requests or pressure for sex or other sexual acts
    • actual or attempted rape or sexual assault
    • indecent phone calls, including someone leaving a sexually explicit message on voicemail or an answering machine
    • sexually explicit comments made in emails, SMS messages or on social media
    • repeated or inappropriate sexual advances on email, social networking websites, internet chat rooms or other online platforms
    • seeing or being sent sexually explicit images and videos, cartoons, drawings, photographs, or jokes that made you feel offended
    • sharing or threatening to share intimate images or video of you without your consent (for example, images or video of you involving sexual activity or nudity)
    • inappropriate commentary, images or film of you distributed on some form of social media without your consent
    • any other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature (including online or via some form of technology).

Technical notes

  • Respondents were given the option of identifying their gender as ‘Male’, ‘Female’, ‘Non-binary’, ‘Other’ or they could indicate that they ‘Prefer not to say’. The report included responses from those who identified as ‘Male’, ‘Female’ and ‘Non-binary’.
    Findings were not separately reported for respondents who answered ‘Other’ and ‘Prefer not to say’ due to small sample sizes – they have been included as part of the aggregate analysis.
  • Respondents were given the option of identifying their sexual orientation as ‘Straight or heterosexual’, ‘Gay’, ‘Lesbian’, ‘Bisexual’, ‘Pansexual’, ‘Queer’, ‘Asexual or Aromantic’, ‘Undecided, not sure or questioning’, ‘Other (please specify)’, or ‘Prefer not to say’. Findings for those who identified as pansexual, queer, asexual, aromantic, undecided, not sure or questioning, or other, were combined under one category, ‘Other’, due to small sample sizes.

AIC National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP)

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

The NHMP collates national data on homicide incidents, victims and offenders drawing on state and territory police service offence records and the National Coronial Information System. The NHMP data are also cross-referenced and supplemented with additional material from court documents and media reports. The NHMP presents statistics on domestic homicides (homicides involving intimate partners and family) by a range of characteristics including relationship sub-classification, motive, preceding crime, victim and/or offender alcohol or drug use and victim cause of death.

FDSV definitions

  • Domestic homicide is the term used to identify FDV. A homicide is defined as a domestic homicide if the victim (in single victim incidents) or one or more victims (in multiple victim incidents) had a domestic relationship with the primary offender. A domestic relationship includes intimate partner (current or former), child (including adult children), parent, sibling, and other family member (including nephew/niece, uncle/aunt, cousin, grandparent and kin). Family relationships include biological, adoptive, foster and kinship care, and step relatives.

Technical notes

  • In homicides involving multiple victims, any victims without a domestic relationship to the primary offender are not included in the domestic homicide victim total. This differs from the domestic homicide incident classification used in some AIC reporting in which all victims in multiple victim homicides are classified based on the closest relationship between any one victim and the primary offender in the incident.
  • Domestic homicide sub-classifications include: intimate partner homicides, filicide (a parent killing a child), parricide (a child killing a parent), siblicide (a sibling killing a sibling), and other family homicides (including where a victim is killed by a nephew/niece, uncle/aunt, cousin, grandparent or kin).
  • Family homicide includes all domestic homicide sub-classifications, except intimate partner homicides.
  • Homicide is defined by the NHMP as: all cases resulting in a person or persons being charged with murder or manslaughter; all murder–suicides classed as murder by police; all driving causing death offences where the offender was charged with murder, manslaughter or equivalent offences; and all other deaths classed as homicides by police, including infanticides, whether or not an offender was apprehended.
  • Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
  • In this collection data relating to sex is based on the detail in police and coronial records and is not always recorded. Sex is recorded as ‘male’, ‘female’ and ‘not stated or unknown’. Data presented refer to an individual’s sex characteristics rather than gender. For reporting purposes, 'Persons' may exclude where sex was not stated or unknown.

AIFS National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study

Type: Survey

Frequency: One-off

Coverage: National

The National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study was released by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in 2021. It involved two nationally representative surveys: one of older people living in the community (the ‘Survey of Older People’) and one of general community members aged 18 to 64 (‘Survey of the General Community’). 

The Survey of Older People was a nationally representative sample of 7,000 people aged 65 and over living in private dwellings in the community. It was conducted from February to May 2020. It is important to note that the Survey of Older People focused on people who live in the community and did not cover people who live in aged care or those who were unable to undertake an interview due to health conditions or incapacity to provide consent. As such, data from this survey are likely to under-estimate the prevalence of elder abuse. 

The Survey of the General Community was a nationally representative sample involving 2,400 people from the general community who live in private dwellings and have the cognitive capacity to engage in a telephone interview. It was conducted from November to December 2019.

FDSV definitions

  • Elder abuse is defined as a single or repeated act or failure to act, including threats, that results in harm or distress to an older person. These occur where there is an expectation of trust and/or where there is a power imbalance between the party responsible and the older person. 
  • Five abuse subtypes were captured in the survey: financial abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and psychological abuse. 

Technical notes

  • An older person is defined as a person aged 65 and older.
  • A perpetrator is defined as a person who is responsible for the act or omission, and it includes family members, friends, neighbours, acquaintances and professionals but excluded strangers.
  • While the sample size of 7,000 older people was sufficient to estimate the overall prevalence of elder abuse for those living in the community, it presents some limitations in exploring differences by population subgroups. For example, conclusions could be drawn about the culturally and linguistically diverse population as a whole, but not about particular cultural groups. Similarly, findings about other population subgroups are not presented due to small sample sizes.
  • Data weighting was conducted to reduce the extent of any biases arising from potential non-coverage of population subgroups and consequent constrains on the ability to make inferences about the target population.

AIHW Australian Burden of Disease Study

Type: Statistical

Frequency: Every 4 years

Coverage: National

Burden of disease analysis uses a range of studies to produce reliable estimates of the impact of partner violence and child abuse or neglect on diseases for which there is a causal association.

The project estimated the amount of burden that could have been avoided in 2018 if no adult women in Australia had been exposed to (current or former) partner violence during their lifetime and all people in Australia were not exposed to child abuse or neglect. It uses methodologies largely consistent with international burden of disease studies.

FDSV definitions

  • Intimate partner violence included emotional, physical and sexual intimate partner violence by a cohabiting current or previous intimate partner. The project used the 2016 ABS Personal Safety Survey data for prevalence estimates. Intimate partner violence was causally linked to homicide and violence, suicide and self-inflicted injuries, alcohol use disorders, depression, anxiety and early pregnancy loss.
  • Child abuse and neglect included physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect. Child abuse or neglect were causally linked to anxiety disorders, depressive disorders and suicide and self-inflicted injuries. 

Technical notes

  • The impact of this risk factor was estimated only in women as sufficient evidence in the literature to identify the causally linked diseases and the amount of increased risk (relative risk) is not currently available for men.
  • Years of life lost (YLL) refers to the number of years of life lost due to premature death, defined as dying before the ideal life span. YLL represent fatal burden.
  • Years lived with disability (YLD) refers to the number of years of what could have been a healthy life that were instead spent in states of less than full health. YLD represent non-fatal burden.
  • Disability-adjusted life years (DALY) are a measure of healthy life lost, either through premature death or living with disability due to illness or injury.

AIHW Child Protection National Minimum Data Set (CP NMDS)

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

The CP NMDS is an annual collection of information on child protection in Australia. It contains data on children who come into contact with State and Territory departments responsible for child protection. Information on child protection and family support services, including the characteristics of children who receive these services are available.

FDSV definitions

  • Emotional abuse refers to any act by a person having the care of a child that results in the child suffering any kind of significant emotional deprivation or trauma. Children affected by exposure to family violence are also included in this category.
  • Physical abuse refers to any non-accidental physical act inflicted upon a child by a person having the care of a child.
  • Sexual abuse refers to any act by a person, having the care of a child that exposes the child to, or involves the child in, sexual processes beyond their understanding or contrary to accepted community standards.
  • Neglect refers to any serious acts or omissions by a person having the care of a child that, within the bounds of cultural tradition, constitute a failure to provide conditions that are essential for the healthy physical and emotional development of a child.

Technical notes

  • Children may receive a mix of child protection services – when reporting a unique count of children who had contact with the child protection system in the reporting period, each child is counted once if one or more of the following occurred – being the subject of an investigation of a notification, being on a care and protection order, or being in out-of-home care.
  • Substantiations of notifications received during the current reporting year refer to child protection notifications made to relevant authorities between 1 July and 30 June of the relevant financial year, which were investigated and the investigation was finalised by 31 August, and where it was concluded that there was reasonable cause to believe that the child had been, was being, or was likely to be, abused, neglected or otherwise harmed. Substantiation does not necessarily require sufficient evidence for a successful prosecution and does not imply that treatment or case management was provided. Substantiations may also include cases where there is no suitable caregiver, such as children who have been abandoned or whose parents are deceased.
  • Notifications are contacts made to an authorised department by persons or other bodies making allegations of child abuse or neglect, child maltreatment or harm to a child.
  • Care and protection orders are legal orders or arrangements that give child protection departments some responsibility for a child’s welfare. These include finalised guardianship or custody orders, finalised third-party parental responsibility orders, finalised supervisory orders, interim and temporary orders, and administrative arrangements.
  • Time series data for substantiations are limited due to changes in state and territory legislation, policy/practice, and information management systems which reduce the ability to accurately compare data over long periods.
  • Caution should be used when comparing data across states and territories due to differences between data collection practices.
  • Some data may not match those published in previous Child protection Australia publications due to retrospective updates to data.
  • In this data collection, sex is recorded as ‘Male’, ‘Female’, ‘Intersex or indeterminate’ or ‘Not stated/inadequately described’. For reporting purposes, the terms ‘Boys’, ‘Girls’ and 'All children' are used. 'All children' may include unborn children and children whose sex was 'Not stated'.

AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD)

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

The NHMD is a collection of episode-level records from admitted patient morbidity data collection systems in Australian hospitals. It is a comprehensive data set that has records for all episodes of admitted patient care from essentially all public and private hospitals in Australia.

A record is included for each separation, not for each patient, so patients who separated more than once in the year have more than one record in the NHMD.

FDSV definitions

  • Family and domestic violence hospitalised cases are those that have:
    • an injury principal diagnosis in the ICD-10-AM code range S00–T75, T79.
    • a first recorded External causes of morbidity and mortality ICD-10-AM code in the range X85 – Y09 (Assault), and a perpetrator coded as Spouse or domestic partner, Parent, or Other family member (5th character codes of 0,1,2 respectively). An 'external cause' is the term used in disease classification to refer to an event or circumstance in a person's external environment that is regarded as a cause of injury or poisoning.

Technical notes

  • The term ‘hospitalisation’ is used to describe a hospitalised case. A hospitalised case is an episode of admitted patient care excluding admissions:
    • that are transfers from another hospital
    • with rehabilitation procedures (except for acute hospital admissions)
    • where the mode of admission is statistical admission – episode type change and the care type is not listed as acute
    • with the care type indicating newborn with unqualified days only, organ procurement – posthumous or hospital boarder.
  • A hospital separation is an episode of care for an admitted patient, which can be a total hospital stay (from admission to discharge, transfer or death) or a portion of a hospital stay beginning or ending in a change of type of care (for example, from acute to rehabilitation). Separation also means the process by which an admitted patient completes an episode of care either by being discharged, dying, transferring to another hospital or changing type of care. 
  • A hospital stay is a continuous period of acute care hospitalisation. A hospital stay may be made up of one or more acute care hospital separations.
  • A non-admitted patient is a person who receives care from a recognised non-admitted patient service/clinic of a hospital, including emergency departments and outpatient clinics.
  • Principal diagnosis is the diagnosis established, after study, to be chiefly responsible for an episode of patient care, residential care or attendance at a health care establishment. Diagnoses are recorded using the relevant edition of the International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems, 10th Revision, Australian modification (ICD-10-AM).
  • A change in New South Wales’ emergency department admission policy resulted in a significant decrease (3.7%) in public hospital admissions between 2016–17 and 2017–18. As this decrease disproportionately affected hospitalisations for injury and poisoning, and the size of the contribution of NSW data to the national total, data from 2017–18 onwards should not be compared with those of previous years (break in series).
  • Interpretation of changes over time should take into account changes in the proportion of all hospitalised assault cases where perpetrator information was not specified. The proportion of assault hospitalisations with a specified perpetrator recorded has improved by almost 25 percentage points from 42% in 2002–03 when perpetrator coding was introduced, to 67% in 2021–22.
  • Age is age at admission.
  • Totals include records where age, remoteness area and/or socioeconomic were unavailable, therefore the sum of these group counts may not equal the total.
  • Data exclude hospitalisations in Western Australia (WA) with a contracted patient status of 'Inter-hospital contracted patient to private sector hospital', to adjust for separations recorded on both sides of contractual care arrangements. Data from 2012–13 onwards has been updated to remove the contracted duplicates. As a result, national counts in these tables will not match previously published data.
  • Australian totals include records where Indigenous status was not known.
  • In this collection, data relating to sex is based on hospital admissions records. Patients’ sex was recorded as ‘male’, ‘female’ or ‘other’. For reporting purposes, the term 'Persons' is used for all patients and may include records where sex was missing or recorded as 'other'.

AIHW Specialist Homelessness Services collection (SHSC)

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

The SHSC obtains information about adults and children who seek assistance from specialist homelessness agencies. A person is classified as a ‘client’ once they receive services, and a ‘support period’ is the period a client receives assistance from a SHS agency. Data are collected on an ongoing basis and submitted to the AIHW on a monthly basis. Monthly data are publicly available for July 2017 onwards.

FDSV definitions

  • A SHSC client is identified as experiencing FDV if in any support period during the reporting period:  
    • the client was formally referred from a non-SHS FDV agency to an SHS agency, or
    • 'family and domestic violence' was reported as a reason they sought assistance, or
    • during any support period they required assistance for FDV. 

Technical notes

  • The SHSC reports on clients experiencing family and domestic violence of any age, including both victims and a smaller number perpetrators who may be assisted by SHS agencies. 
  • Data for 2011–12 to 2016–17 have been adjusted for non-response. Due to improvements in the rates of agency participation and SLK validity, 2017–18 data are not weighted. The removal of weighting does not constitute a break in time series and weighted data from 2011–12 to 2016–17 are comparable with unweighted data for 2017–18 onwards.
  • For state/territory-specific data quality issues, refer to the Explanatory Notes for the SHSC.
  • From 2017–18 to 2018–19, there was a three per cent decrease in the total number of Victorian homelessness clients and a 10 percent decrease in family violence clients following years of steady increases in these numbers. The decrease was primarily due to a practice correction in how some family violence agencies were recording clients. In addition, during 2018–19, a phased process to shift family violence intake to non-SHS services began, which may result in an overall decrease in the number of SHS family violence clients over the coming years. Caution should be used when comparing Victorian client numbers over recent years.
  • Support period counts may differ from previous publications due to an improvement in methodology, which has resulted in a small decrease in the number of support periods.
  • Data extracted from the SHSC data cubes have undergone confidentialisation. Due to this process, figures may differ from those published in annual SHSC reports.
  • In this data collection, sex is recorded as ‘Male’, ‘Female’, or ‘Other’. The ‘Other’ response option was introduced on 1 July 2019. For reporting purposes, 'Persons' includes all clients and 'Female' may also include clients recorded as 'other' as these data are combined for quality and confidentiality reasons. See AIHW SHSC Technical Notes for more information.
  • Clients are considered to be at risk of homelessness if they are living in any of the following circumstances: public or community housing (renter or rent free); private or other housing (renter, rent free or owner); or institutional settings (for example, hospital, disability support, correctional centre). These clients are at risk of losing their accommodation due to factors such as financial stress, family violence, relationship breakdown, and unsafe or overcrowded housing.
  • Clients are considered to be homeless if they are living in any of the following circumstances: no shelter or improvised/inadequate dwelling; short term temporary accommodation; couch surfer or with no tenure (in a house, townhouse or flat).
  • Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) clients are identified as having a current mental health issue if they are aged 10 years or older and have provided any of the following information:
    • They indicated that at the beginning of support they were receiving services or assistance for their mental health issues or had in the last 12 months.
    • Their formal referral source to the SHS was a mental health service.
    • They reported ‘mental health issues’ as a reason for seeking assistance.
    • Their dwelling type either a week before presenting to an agency, or when presenting to an agency, was a psychiatric hospital or unit.
    • They had been in a psychiatric hospital or unit in the last 12 months.
    • At some stage during their support period, a need was identified for psychological services, psychiatric services or mental health services.
  • The identification of clients with problematic drug and/or alcohol use may be current or recent; referring to issues at presentation, just prior to receiving support or at least once in the 12 months prior to support. SHS clients aged 10 and over are reported in the SHSC with problematic drug and/or alcohol use if, at the beginning of or during support, the client provided any of the following information:
    • recorded their dwelling type as rehabilitation facility
    • required drug or alcohol counselling
    • were formally referred to the SHS service from an alcohol and drug treatment service
    • had been in a rehabilitation facility or institution during the past 12 months
    • reported problematic drug, substance or alcohol use as a reason for seeking assistance or the main reason for seeking assistance.

ANROWS Adolescent Family Violence in Australia study

Type: Survey

Frequency: One-off

Coverage: National

The ANROWS Adolescent family violence in Australia study involved a survey of young people living in Australian who were 16–20 years old at time of completing the survey. Survey respondents were recruited through online research panels, using non-probability protocols, so the data are not representative of the broader Australian population (16–20 years old). 

Survey respondents were asked a series of questions about their sociodemographic characteristics, their current living arrangements, and their experiences of: 

  • witnessing violence between other family members
  • being subjected to direct forms of abuse perpetrated by other family members
  • their use of violence against other family members. 

Overall, more than 5,000 young people completed the survey. Two thirds of the sample identified that they were assigned female at birth (3,300), and one third said they had been assigned male at birth (1,600).

FDSV definitions

  • Adolescent family violence is defined as violence used by an adolescent, including the following behaviours: 
    • physical violence towards another family member (e.g. hitting, slapping, pushing, punching, kicking)
    • damaging the property of another family member (e.g. destroying someone’s property or belongings as an intimidation or punishment tactic)
    • verbally abusing another family member (including yelling, swearing)
    • emotionally/psychologically abusing another family member (e.g. putting someone down, telling them they’re useless/stupid/ugly)
    • threatening to harm/hurt another family member, and/or threatening to harm/hurt someone close to another family member (including a pet or friend)
    • threatening to kill another family member
    • sexually abusing another family member (including touching another family member’s private parts and/or forcing a family member to have sex)
    • strangling another family member (including choking or suffocating someone, grabbing someone by their throat, pinning someone down or against the wall by their throat)
    • perpetrating any other form of abuse against another family member (including sexual identity-based abuse and/or gender identity-based abuse, discrimination and prejudice).
  • Family member is defined broadly to include biological parents, adoptive parents, step-parents and foster carers, siblings, grandparents, extended family members (e.g. aunts, uncles and cousins), chosen family members and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship relationships. The term “family member” includes extended family members and is not limited to the family members with whom the adolescent lives all or part of the time.

Technical notes

  • The study used a non-probability sample, which means that not everyone had an equal likelihood of being selected to participate in the research. As a result the findings may not be generalisable to the wider Australian population. For example, female respondents are overrepresented within the sample, as are those residing in major cities.
  • Subsamples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, young people from non-English speaking backgrounds, young people living with disability, and young people identifying with diverse sexual and gender identities were small. Findings for these groups of young people must be interpreted with care.

ANROWS Technology-Facilitated Abuse Survey

Type: Survey

Frequency: One-off

Coverage: National

The ANROWS Technology-Facilitated Abuse Survey was released by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety in 2022. It involved a nationally representative sample of 4,562 people aged 18 years and over in Australia. The main focus of the study was to establish reliable prevalence estimates of technology-facilitated abuse, and to deepen the understanding of its gendered nature. The survey used a combination of the Social Research Centre’s Life in Australia panel and an additional booster sample via an opt-in online panel to supplement the overall sample. Life in Australia represents a methodologically rigorous online panel exclusively using random probability-based sampling methods, which allows results to be generalisable to the Australian population.

FDSV definitions

The study included four types of TFA:

  • harassing behaviours (such as sending offensive, distressing and/or damaging communications towards or about a person online)
  • sexual and image-based abuse (such as coercing online sexual acts or creating/sharing sexual imagery without consent)
  • monitoring and/or controlling behaviours (such as unauthorised access to digital devices, gathering information about a person, or seeking to restrict them)
  • emotional abuse and threats (such as sending communications that threaten harm).

Technical notes

  • Respondents were asked which best describes their gender: man, woman, transgender man, transgender woman, non-binary, intersex or another gender. Participants who described their gender as transgender, intersex and/or another gender (21) were excluded from the main statistical analyses due to small numbers.
  • Due to its focus on providing reliable prevalence estimates, it was not possible to explore sub-types of technology-facilitated abuse in any detail.

Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS)

Type: Survey

Frequency: TBC

The ACMS was designed to meet 3 broad aims:

  • to identify how many Australians experience each type of child maltreatment, and gather important details about its nature (age of onset and cessation, chronicity, severity, and relationship to the person inflicting it)
  • to identify the associated impacts on mental health, health risk behaviours, physical health, and health service use, through life
  • to identify the burden of disease produced by maltreatment.

Data were collected from 8,500 participants – 3,500 aged 16–24 and 5,000 aged 25 years and over. People were considered to be eligible for participation if they were aged 16 years or more, in an age group for which participants were required when contacted and had sufficient English language proficiency for participation. The final response rate was 4.0% when based on the estimated number of eligible participants (about 210,370 people) and 14% when based on eligible participants contacted (about 60,800 people) (Haslam et al. 2023).   

FDSV definitions

  • Physical abuse involves the use of physical force by a parent or caregiver against a child that causes injury, harm, pain, or breach of dignity, or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, harm, pain, or breach of dignity, where it is clearly not reasonable corporal punishment, or done reasonably while engaging in any other legitimate context such as a sport or pastime.
  • Sexual abuse includes any sexual act inflicted on a child by any adult or other person, including contact and non-contact acts, for the purpose of sexual gratification, where true consent by the child is not present. True consent will not be present where the child either lacks capacity to give consent, or has capacity but does not give full, free, and voluntary consent.
  • Emotional abuse involves non-physical interactions with the child by a parent or caregiver, which convey to a child that they are worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered, or only of value in meeting another’s needs. These interactions are typically persistent, but may occur in isolation.
  • Neglect involves the failure by a parent or caregiver to provide the child with the basic necessities of life, as suited to the child’s developmental stage, and as recognised by the child’s cultural context. Neglect normally involves a pattern of repeated conduct, but may be constituted by a single omission in severe circumstances.
  • Corporal punishment is the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain or discomfort to correct or punish a child’s behaviour.

Technical notes

  • To measure child maltreatment the ACMS used the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire-R2: Adapted Version, an adaptation of an existing well-validated measure of child treatment used in many other studies.
  • The ACMS determined associations between self-reported experiences of child maltreatment and six health risk behaviours:
    • cannabis dependence, based on a cannabis severity of dependence scale score of 3 or more determined during the survey interview
    • suicide attempts, based on self-report in the past 12 months
    • non-suicidal self-injury, based on self-report in the past 12 months
    • recent cigarette smoking, based on self-report in the past 12 months
    • binge drinking, based on self-report of having six or more drinks for men or five or more drinks for women in a single session at least weekly over the past 12 months
    • obesity, based on self-reported height and weight during the survey interview and a body mass index of > 30kg/m(for more information, see Lawrence et al. 2022b).

Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network National Minimum Data Set

Type: Administrative

Frequency: TBC

Coverage: National

The Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network (ADFVDRN) comprises representatives from each of the established Australian domestic and family violence death review teams. Through the Network, the individual death review teams have collaborated to report on national data on intimate partner homicide.  

The ADFVDRN focused dataset includes 292 cases and draws on data from those jurisdictions with a formalised death review mechanism in place. Data sources include police documents, sentencing remarks, coronial files, medical records (where available), service records and witness statements from people who knew the couple prior to the homicide. It excludes all cases sourced from the NCIS (National Coronial Information System), including all cases from Tasmania, ACT and Western Australia from July 2010 to June 2012.

FDSV definitions

  • Domestic and family relationships are recognised as current or former intimate partners (heterosexual and homosexual), family members (adults and children) and kin. This includes formal and informal family-like relationships, and explicitly includes extended family-like relationships that are recognised within that individual’s cultural group.
  • For the intimate partner homicide national minimum data set, the following cases were included: 
    • the death was as a result of a homicide that occurred in Australia between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2018 
    • the homicide victim and homicide offender were either in a current or former intimate partner relationship
    • there was an identifiable history of violence between the homicide victim and homicide offender
    • the coronial or criminal proceedings in that homicide were complete on or before 31 December 2020.
  • The primary abuser in an intimate partner relationship is defined as the person who primarily initiated domestic violence during the relationship and/or was the main aggressor of domestic violence after the relationship had ended. The primary abuser was identified from both reported and anecdotal accounts of abuse in the relationship prior to the homicide.

Technical notes

  • The focused dataset includes characteristics relating to separation or intention to separate, family law proceedings, domestic violence orders, and the nature of domestic violence and abusive behaviours used by the abuser prior to the homicide (ADFVDRN and ANROWS 2022).
  • The ADFVDRN National Minimum Dataset has the following limitations:
    • the dataset likely undercounts the true incidence of intimate partner homicides with a history of violence due to undisclosed or unreported domestic violence in the relationship
    • the dataset’s reliance on service data may result in under-reporting of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people with disability due to inconsistent collection and identification in administrative data
    • the dataset may under-report LGBTIQ+ couples due to the relationship not being disclosed or recognised by services, families or friends prior to the homicide
    • there are difficulties accurately collecting data on surviving children, especially stepchildren or children living outside the home.
  • People with disability are likely to have been under-reported in the Intimate partner violence homicides 2010–18 report due to inconsistencies in the identification and definitions of disability in service data. People with disability were identified through a formal disability diagnosis and/or records of disability pension receipt.
  • There were 6 IPV homicide cases where a male killed a male. One victim and one offender were identified as people with disability. There were no IPV homicide cases where a female killed a female. Due to these low numbers, proportions were not included in the AIHW’s reporting.

Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH)

Type: Longitudinal survey

Frequency: Every 6 months to 3 years, depending on cohort

Coverage: National

The ALSWH is a leading national longitudinal survey of more than 57,000 women that began in 1996. Longitudinal surveys collect evidence of the long-term health impacts and outcomes of family, domestic and sexual violence. Longitudinal surveys follow the same cohort of people over time to measure changes over time. The ALSWH explores factors that influence health throughout the lifespan among women who are broadly representative of the entire Australian population.

The study began with 3 cohorts of women born in 1973–78, 1946–51 or 1921–26; in 2012, a fourth cohort was added of women born in 1989–95. Participants were randomly selected from the Medicare database, except that women from rural and remote areas were sampled at twice the rate of women in urban areas, to ensure numbers were large enough for statistical comparison. Comparison of the original cohorts with Australian Censuses found that there was some over-representation of Australian-born women and of women with tertiary education. In addition, ALSWH participants were more likely to be married, be employed and work longer hours than women of the same age in the general population. The 1989–95 cohort were broadly representative in terms of area of residence, State and Territory distribution, marital status and age distribution. Women in the study are sent surveys by mail every 3 years.

FDSV definitions

  • Domestic violence was measured slightly differently according to the cohort but all four cohorts were asked ‘Have you ever been in a violent relationship with a partner/spouse?’ This question was asked at every survey for women born 1973–78, at Surveys 1, 4, 5 and 6 for women born 1946–51, but was only asked at Survey 1 for women born 1921–26. This variable was used to classify domestic violence.
  • Women born 1973–78 and 1946–51 were defined into one of three categories:
    • if they self-reported ‘yes’ to the domestic violence question at Survey 1, then they were classified as ‘Domestic violence by 1996’
    • if they answered ‘no’ at Survey 1 but answered ‘yes’ at any following survey, then they were classified as ‘Domestic violence after 1996’
    • if they self‑reported ‘no’ at Survey 1 and had not answered ‘yes’ in any subsequent survey, then they were classified as ‘Never domestic violence’.
  • Women born 1921–26 were only asked the domestic violence question at Survey 1 and were therefore defined into one of two categories:
    • if they self-reported ‘yes’, then they were classified as ‘Domestic violence by 1996’
    • if they self-reported ‘no’, then they were classified as ‘Never domestic violence’.
  • Details of abuse experienced in childhood has been collected from the three youngest cohorts using the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale.
  • Behavioural measures of domestic violence have been included in the 1973–78 and 1989–95 cohort surveys. The Community Composite Abuse Scale has been completed by the 1973–78 cohort since Survey 4, and every survey of the 1989–95 cohort has included the abbreviated version of this scale.
  • All women have been asked about sexual violence on a regular basis. Other items have asked about bullying, non-partner violence and vulnerability to elder abuse.

Australians’ negative online experiences (eSafety Commissioner)

Type: Survey

Frequency: 2019, 2022

Coverage: National

The Australians’ negative online experiences 2022 research into attitudes and experiences of Australian adults was commissioned by eSafety and conducted by WhereTo Research. The results are based on around 4,700 Australians aged 18–65, and covers the 12-month period to November 2022. The research forms part of a larger national survey of about 5,300 Australians aged 18 years and older.

Technical notes

Data do not include experiences with scams, online fraud, or device virus/malware. 

Community knowledge and attitudes about child abuse and child protection in Australia

Type: Survey

Frequency: 2003, 2006, 2010, 2021

Coverage: National

The key objectives of the Community knowledge and attitudes about child abuse and child protection in Australia research were to assess the degree to which child abuse is considered a community concern; gauge the accuracy of public knowledge about the extent, nature and impact of child abuse; and track community attitudes about the challenges facing children in relation to child abuse and child protection.

A nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults aged 18 years and over in Australia completed an online survey in November 2020 by EY Sweeney. A sample of telephone interviews were also conducted in order to compare key questions to historical results so as to calibrate the data if required given the shift from predominantly telephone surveying in 2009 to a predominantly online survey in 2020. This may impact some of the results.

FDSV definitions

  • Child abuse is a broad term that involves the sexual and physical abuse of children; emotional and psychological abuse; and neglect. This can occur by perpetrators who are carers but can also include other family members who are not part of the household.
  • Emotional and/or psychological abuse can be classified into the following five forms of parental behavioural patterns: rejection, ignoring, corrupting, terrorising, and isolating. A number of additional categories of emotional and psychological abuse have been identified and added to the definition, including scapegoating, parentification, verbal abuse, use of coercive control, shaming, denial or reality and emotional invalidation.
  • Neglect describes the experiences for children when they are not attended to, poorly supervised and not provided with the basic provisions required to support children’s development.
  • Being forced to live with family violence is a pervasive form of child abuse.

Department of Social Services – 1800RESPECT

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

The Department of Social Services collects data on 1800RESPECT including number of contacts, type of contact (telephone and web chats) and user demographic information. Contact data includes every contact to the service, including hang-ups, pranks and wrong numbers.  

Technical notes

  • Contact data includes every contact to the service, including hang-ups, pranks and wrong numbers. With regards to gender, ‘Other’ includes people who do not identify as male or female, including intersex or people who choose not to disclose their gender. Not all contacts choose to disclose information. 
  • Comparisons between years are not recommended due to changes from media reporting of domestic violence incidents, advertising campaigns and service improvements. 

Kids Helpline

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual (also available monthly, quarterly)

Coverage: National

Kids Helpline is a free national helpline that provides support for children and young people aged 5 to 25. It offers counselling via phone, email, and web chat. Children and young people contact Kids Helpline about diverse issues, including mental health, suicide, relationships (with family, peers and partners), child abuse and family violence, and bullying.

Data are available on the concerns discussed during Kids Helpline contact, including those related to family relationship concerns, child abuse and family violence, sexual violence and harassment concerns, dating and partner abuse concerns.

FDSV definitions

  • Family relationship concerns include child-parent relationships, other family relationships.
  • Child abuse and family violence concerns include emotional abuse, neglect of child, physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation by family member, exposure to family violence.
  • Sexual violence and harassment concerns includes sexual assault or abuse, sexual harassment.
  • Dating and partner abuse concerns include sexual offending.

Technical notes

  • Yearly numbers reflect the number of times a concern type was raised during all counselling contacts. They do not reflect a count of unique individuals, counselling contacts or incidents. 
  • Each contact can include counselling for more than one concern type and/or the same concern type multiple times for different incidents discussed. 
  • Clients may also contact Kids Helpline more than once about the same incident. Concern type is counted separately in each of these instances. 

Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC)

Type: Longitudinal survey

Frequency: Every 2 years

Coverage: National

The purpose of the LSAC is to provide data that enable a comprehensive understanding of development and life-course trajectories within Australia's current social, economic and cultural environment. The survey collects information from two cohorts, with the study sample comprising 5,100 children aged 3–15 months in 2004, and 4,900 children aged 4–5 in 2004. The study also collects information from the study child’s parents (both resident and non-resident), carers and teachers. Children began participating in the study when they reached an appropriate age. Participants were a representative sample of children of those ages across Australia at the time.

The longitudinal nature of the study enables researchers to examine the dynamics of change through the life course as children develop, and to go beyond the static pictures provided by cross-sectional statistics. The study thereby gives government and researchers access to quality data about children's development in the contemporary Australian environment, as they develop through to adolescence and adulthood.

FDSV definitions

  • Argumentative relationship data (questions for Parent 1 and Parent 2) have been collected since Wave 1 with the following domestic violence elements:
    • How often is there anger or hostility between you?
    • How often do you have arguments with your partner that end up with people pushing, hitting, kicking or shoving?
  • Since Wave 4, the following question has been included for Parent 1 and Parent 2:
    • Have you ever been afraid of your partner?
  • Since Wave 7, the following questions have been included for Parents (i.e., Parent 1, Parent 2 and Parent living elsewhere):
    • Have you ever been afraid of study child?
    • Are you currently afraid of study child?
    • How often is there anger or hostility between you and study child?
    • How often do you have arguments with study child that end up with people pushing, hitting, kicking or shoving?
  • In Wave 7, LSAC collected data on parents’ childhood adversity in terms of domestic violence and sexual abuse. The survey asked respondents whether they had experienced any of the following: 
    • Your father physically abused your mother (punched, hit, kicked, etc.)
    • Your mother physically abused your father (e.g. punched, hit, kicked, etc.)
    • Your father verbally abused your mother (e.g. ridiculed, humiliated, etc.)
    • Your mother verbally abused your mother (e.g. ridiculed, humiliated, etc.)
    • You were verbally abused, ridiculed or humiliated by a parent
    • You received frequent beatings or too much physical punishment (e.g. hitting, smacking)
    • You were sexually abused by someone in your family living in the household
    • You were sexually abused by someone in your family not living in the household.
  • In Wave 8, LSAC collected data on intimate partner violence and abuse among K cohort respondents aged 18-19 who had indicated having been in a romantic relationship since age 16. The survey asked respondents whether they had experienced any of the following from a current or former partner in the past 12 months: 
    • Blamed you for causing their violent behaviour
    • Tried to convince your family, children or friends that you are crazy or turn them against you
    • Followed you or hung around outside your house
    • Threatened to harm or kill you or someone close to you
    • Harassed you over the phone, by text, email or using social media
    • Told you you were crazy, stupid or not good enough
    • Tried to keep you from seeing or talking to your family or friends
    • Kept you from having access to a job, money or financial resources
    • Shook, pushed, grabbed or threw you
    • Used or threatened to use a knife or gun or other weapon to harm you
    • Choked you
    • Hit or tried to hit you with a fist or object, kicked or bit you
    • Confined or locked you in a room or other space
    • Made you perform sex acts that you did not want to perform
    • Forced or tried to force you to have sex.

Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC)

Type: Longitudinal survey

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) follows the development of around 1,700 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families across urban, regional and remote Australia. The study provides a data resource that can be drawn on by government, researchers, service providers, parents and communities. It is one of the largest longitudinal studies of Indigenous people worldwide. LSIC aims to improve understanding of the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, their families and communities to inform better policy and program development. LSIC is not based on a representative sample. 

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS)

Type: Survey

Frequency: Every 6–8 years

Coverage: National

The NATSIHS collected information from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of all ages in non-remote and remote areas of Australia, including discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The scope of the survey was all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in private dwellings. 

The survey was designed to produce reliable estimates for the whole of Australia, for each state and territory and for remoteness areas. The survey sample had two parts – a community sample, made up of discrete Indigenous communities, including any outstations associated with them, and a non-community sample, made up of persons in private dwellings within areas outside of Indigenous communities. Each part used a multi-stage sampling process to ensure the representativeness of the final sample.

FDSV definitions

  • Respondents were asked to provide information on their experiences of physical and threatened physical harm in the previous 12 months. Physical harm refers to any incident where a person was physically hurt or harmed by someone on purpose, including physical fights. Other forms of abuse (e.g. sexual, emotional, psychological) are not included. Threatened physical harm refers to threats of physical harm that occurred either face-to-face or non-face-to-face (e.g. via instant message/social networking sites, text message, phone, email or writing).
  • A person is considered to have experienced family and domestic violence within the context of the survey if they identified an intimate partner or family member as an offender. An intimate partner is a current partner (husband/wife/defacto); previous partner (husband/wife/defacto), boyfriend/girlfriend/ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend, or date.
  • A family member is a parent, child, sibling, or other family member.

Technical notes

  • Experiences of harm are likely to be under-reported. While the relationship to offender data items can provide an indication of the number of people who have experienced physical harm or face-to-face threatened physical harm, the data do not provide a complete picture of physical harm, or the prevalence of family and domestic violence.
  • Interviews are conducted face-to-face with a trained interviewer, but there is no requirement for a private interview setting. People may be less likely to disclose any experiences of physical harm or threatened physical harm by an intimate partner or family member if the offender is present in the home at the time of the interview.
  • Some people who have experienced physical harm or threatened physical harm may not have wished to disclose this to the interviewer for other reasons.

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS)

Type: Survey

Frequency: TBC

Coverage: National

The NATSISS includes all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people residing in private dwellings in Australia. This includes houses, flats, home units and other structures used as private places of residence at the time of the survey. People who usually reside in non-private dwellings, such as hotels, motels, hostels, hospitals, nursing homes, and short-stay caravan parks were not in scope. Usual residents are those who usually live in a particular dwelling and regard it as their own or main home. Visitors to private dwellings that had been resident six months or longer were included. 

The survey was conducted in remote and non-remote areas in all states and territories of Australia, including discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people communities. It was designed to produce reliable estimates at the national level and for each state and territory. Additional sample was collected in the Torres Strait Area, to ensure data of sufficient quality for the Torres Strait Area and the remainder of Queensland.

FDSV definitions

  • Respondents were asked to provide information on their experiences of physical violence or threats of physical violence in the previous 12 months. Due to the sensitive nature of the questions, responses were not compulsory, and a person may have chosen not to answer some or any questions.
  • Physical violence refers to any incident that involves physical assault, which is the use of physical force by a person with the intent to harm or frighten another person. It includes being pushed, shoved, hit or attacked with a weapon. In remote areas, respondents were asked whether anyone started a fight with them or beat them up. Other forms of abuse (e.g. sexual, emotional, psychological) are not included.
  • Respondents who indicated they had experienced physical violence were asked for more information about their most recent experience, including their relationship to the perpetrator. If the respondent identified an intimate partner or family member as a perpetrator, then they are considered to have experienced family and domestic violence. Respondents were able to identify more than one perpetrator where necessary. 
  • An intimate partner is a current partner (husband/wife/defacto); previous partner (husband/wife/defacto), boyfriend/girlfriend/ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend, or date.
  • A family member is a parent, child, sibling, or other family member.

Technical notes

  • Family and domestic violence data are based on the respondent’s most recent experience of physical violence. This means some experiences of family and domestic violence are not included. It also means it is not possible to estimate the overall prevalence of family and domestic violence.
  • Respondents were also asked whether they had experienced threats of physical violence. Those who had experienced threats of physical violence were not asked about their relationship to the perpetrator, so it is not possible to identify threats of physical violence made by intimate partners or family members. 

National Ambulance Surveillance System

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Ongoing

Coverage: Sub-national

The National Ambulance Surveillance System (NASS) is a world-first public health monitoring system providing timely and comprehensive data on ambulance attendances in Australia. The NASS is a partnership between Turning Point, Monash University and state or territory ambulance services across Australia. The NASS collates and codes monthly ambulance attendances data for participating states and territories for self-harm behaviours (suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, death by suicide, and intentional self-injury), mental health, and alcohol and other drug-related attendances. These coded data are routinely managed by AIHW.

Data are extracted from electronic data collection systems used by paramedics to record the details of ambulances attendances, with data currently available for all jurisdictions except Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, due to system constraints. Not all ambulance attendances are included – only attendances for alcohol and other drug, self-harm and mental health related harms are included.

This report includes data from a pilot study, funded by the Australian Institute of Criminology, that developed and coded a violence module.

FDSV definitions

  • The violence module includes details about violence contributing to, or associated with, ambulance attendances, including the characteristics of violent incidents, the type of violence, the relationships between people who use violence (perpetrators) and victims and whether AOD, mental health or self-harm were also associated with the attendance. Information contained in the clinical record is based on clinical assessment, patient self-report, details given by third parties during the attendance, and other evidence available at the scene.
  • The violence-module does not include all violence, only incidents where an ambulance attended, which therefore relates to more severe incidents involving acute harm. It does include violence that did not involve police attendance or where no police report was made, providing additional data for this subset of violence.
  • Ambulance attendances are separately recorded for the victim and/or perpetrator of the violence, to address the harms they are experiencing. Not all perpetrators will experience acute harms themselves and therefore the data capture only a subset of perpetrators for violence-related ambulance attendances.

Technical notes

  • Information from the paramedic clinical assessment, patient self-report, third parties and other evidence at the scene was used to determine whether violence, alcohol and other drug use (AOD), mental health or self-harm contributed to the ambulance attendance.
  • AOD-related attendances are those involving the over or inappropriate use of a substance.
    • Attendances involving any alcohol were classified as ‘alcohol-involved’. A subset of these attendances, classified as ‘alcohol intoxication’, were determined by paramedic clinical assessment of intoxication, supported by the reported alcohol quantity consumed. This is not based on analysis of blood alcohol concentration.
    • Attendances involving pharmaceutical drugs related to the consumption of pharmaceutical medications contradictory to prescriber or manufacturer instructions.
    • Attendances involving illicit drugs related to any consumption of the drug.
  • Self-harm-related ambulance attendances can include self-injurious thoughts and behaviours:
    • threat of non-suicidal self-injury (non-fatal self-inflicted injury, without lethal intent)
    • non-suicidal self-injury (non-fatal self-inflicted injury, without lethal intent)
    • suicidal ideation (thinking about killing oneself, without acting on the thoughts)
    • suicide attempt (non-fatal self-inflicted injury with lethal intent).
  • Mental health-related attendances involve current, identifiable mental health symptoms. They do not require a diagnosis to be reported. Symptoms are classified as:
    • anxiety (overwhelming and intrusive worry)
    • depression (low mood, feelings of hopelessness, despair, worthlessness, anhedonia, change in sleep and appetite)
    • psychosis (hallucinations or delusions)
    • medically induced, where there is evidence that the presenting mental health symptoms are related to a medical condition, rather than a mental health disorder. For example, medical conditions such as head injury, delirium, diabetes, neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and neurocognition disorders such as dementia.
    • social or emotional distress, where patient distress is intrusive to paramedic assessment and treatment and/or the patient is unable to complete activities of daily living (without the presence of other mental health symptoms)
    • other (mental health symptoms otherwise unspecified).

National Community Attitudes towards violence against Women Survey (NCAS)

Type: Survey

Frequency: Every 4 years

Coverage: National

The NCAS is a periodic, representative survey of the Australian population. It was most recently conducted by Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety in 2021, with results released in 2023. The 2021 NCAS sample consisted of 19,100 Australians aged 16 years or over, who were interviewed via mobile telephone. It was conducted from February – July 2021 and asked participants about their:

  • knowledge of violence against women
  • attitudes towards gender equality
  • attitudes towards violence against women
  • intentions should they witness (or be bystanders to) abuse or disrespect towards women.

The 2021 NCAS reports on three main scales:

  • the Understanding of Violence against Women Scale (UVAWS), which measures recognition of problematic behaviours as violence and understanding of the gendered nature of violence against women;
  • the Attitudes towards Gender Inequality Scale (AGIS), which measures rejection of problematic attitudes regarding gender inequality; and
  • the Attitudes towards Violence against Women Scale (AVAWS), which measures rejection of problematic attitudes regarding violence against women.

Data weighting was conducted to strengthen confidence that the survey results accurately represent the Australian population.

FDSV definitions

  • Attitudes are the evaluations of a particular subject (e.g. person, object, concept) that usually exist along a continuum from less to more favourable. The NCAS measures attitudes towards violence against women, including attitudes towards specific types of violence such as domestic violence and sexual violence, as well as attitudes towards gender inequality.
  • Gender equality relates to equal opportunities for all genders to access social, economic and political resources, including legislative protection. Effectively, it describes equality of opportunity.
  • Violence against women is violence that is specifically directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately. It includes any act of violence based on or driven by gender that causes, or could cause, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of harm or coercion, in public or in private life. 
  • Domestic violence refers to violence within current or past intimate partner relationships, which causes physical, sexual or psychological harm. Domestic violence can include physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and financial abuse, and often occurs as a pattern of behaviour involving coercive control. The term ‘domestic violence’ is often used interchangeably with “intimate partner violence”. Domestic violence is used in the NCAS report, as many historical NCAS items use this terminology to describe violence between partners.
  • Family violence is a broader term than domestic violence and refers not only to violence between intimate partners but also to violence between family members. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, family violence encapsulates the broader issue of violence within extended families, kinship networks and community relationships, as well as intergenerational issues. Family may also refer to chosen families, as found in LGBTQ+ communities
  • Sexual violence is an umbrella term that encompasses sexual activity without consent being obtained or freely given. It occurs any time a person is forced, coerced or manipulated into any unwanted sexual activity, such as touching, sexual harassment and intimidation, forced marriage, trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape.
  • Sexual assault is a form of sexual violence, and refers to sexual activity that happens where consent is not freely given or obtained, is withdrawn or the person is unable to consent due to their age or other factors. Sexual assault occurs any time a person is forced, coerced or manipulated into any sexual activity, including coercing a person to engage in sexualised touching, kissing, rape and pornography.
  • Physical violence is the use or threat of physical force with the intent to cause physical or psychological harm, such as physical injury, intimidation or fear. 'Violence against women' is broader than 'physical violence' and can include other forms of abuse and coercive control.
  • Emotional and psychological abuse are forms of abuse that may include verbal, non-verbal or physical acts by the perpetrator that are intended to exercise dominance, control or coercion over the victim; degrade the victim’s emotional or cognitive abilities or sense of self-worth; or induce feelings of fear and intimidation in the victim.
  • Financial abuse is a type of violence that often occurs alongside other types of domestic violence, such as physical or emotional abuse. It involves using money in ways to cause harm, such as by withholding funds, preventing a person being involved in financial decisions that affect them, preventing them from getting a job, controlling all household spending and many other tactics to restrict a victim's and survivor’s freedom and independence.

Technical notes

  • The UVAWS, AGIS and AVAWS are reported here as mean scores from 0 to 100. Higher scores are indicative of higher understanding (UVAWS) or greater rejection of problematic behaviours (AGIS and AVAWS) and are more desirable.
  • “Advanced” understanding in the Understanding Violence Against Women Scale (UVAWS) is defined as answering “yes, always” to at least 75% of items and “yes, usually” to remaining items in the UVAWS. 
  • In the 2021 NCAS, data relating to gender is reported for 3 categories of gender: men, women and non-binary. This was the first year that results were reported for non-binary respondents. Non-binary respondents are those who explicitly identified as non-binary or those who provided another response that was consistent with a gender identity outside the gender binary. For reporting purposes, "Persons" is used to refer to all respondents.

National Student Safety Survey (NSSS)

Type: Survey

Frequency: Every 5 years

Coverage: National

The 2021 National Student Safety Survey (NSSS) was undertaken online from 6 September 2021 to 3 October 2021. Students from Universities Australia universities across Australia participated in the survey. The in-scope population for the survey was students studying at Australian universities aged 18 years and over. A total of 43,819 student participated in the survey for a completion rate of 11.6%. The NSSS survey is not considered representative of university students aged as it used a convenience sample based on voluntary survey completion and online recruitment and completion.

Students were eligible to participate in the survey if they were:

  • currently enrolled in an undergraduate, a postgraduate by coursework or a postgraduate by research course
  • studying onshore, that is students who were either attending onshore campuses of an Australian higher education provider or residing in Australia for the term/semester and undertaking an external program of study at an institution via distance education or online
  • international students who had intended to study onshore but were located offshore studying online due to COVID-19 restrictions
  • aged 18 years or over as of 31 May 2021.

FDSV definitions

  • Sexual harassment is defined as any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours or conduct of a sexual nature in relation to the person harassed in circumstances where a reasonable person would have anticipated the possibility that the person harassed would be offended, humiliated or intimidated. 
  • The NSSS defines sexual assault as any unwanted sexual acts or sexual contact that happened in circumstances where a person was either forced, threatened, pressured, tricked, or no effort was made to check whether there was agreement to the act, including in circumstances where a person was asleep or affected by drugs or alcohol. 
  • Sexual acts and contact included those that may constitute either sexual assault and/or rape in Australian states and territories such as pinching, grabbing or fondling of a person’s sexual body parts, sexual kissing, and/or any sexual penetration (whether oral, vaginal or anal).

Technical notes

An Australian university context refers to any kind of event, place, or social occasion that was arranged or supported by an Australian university, or where students or staff from a person’s university were present. This includes both on and off campus.

National Survey of Australian Secondary Students and Sexual Health (SSASH)

Type: Survey

Frequency: Every 5 years

Coverage: National

The 7th National Survey of Australian Secondary Students and Sexual Health (SSASH survey) conducted in 2021 surveyed about 6,800 secondary school students aged 14–18 years. The SSASH survey is not considered representative of all secondary school students aged 14–18 as it used a convenience sample based on voluntary survey completion and online recruitment and completion.

Technical notes

The term LGBQ+ used in the study refers to people who identified their sexual orientation as lesbian, gay, bisexual, unsure, or a different term (other than heterosexual). Trans and non-binary is used as an umbrella term to refer to people who identified their gender as transgender, non-binary or a different term to describe non-cisgender identity.

Private Lives 3 survey

Type: Survey

Frequency: 2005, 2011, 2019

Coverage: National

La Trobe University’s research series, Private Lives, is currently the largest national survey focussed on the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQ people. In 2019, Private Lives 3 collected FDSV data from 6,835 LGBTIQ respondents aged 18 to 80+ years from a wide range of gender identities and sexual orientations. The survey was advertised through a combination of paid targeted advertising on social media platforms and through LGBTIQ community organisations. A press release was also sent to the Private Lives 3 Expert Advisory Group, professional networks including those of LGBTIQ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and LGBTIQ organisations including Intersex Peer Support Australia, the National LGBTI Health Alliance, the Diversity Department of Health and Human Services, ACON, Thorne Harbour Health, LGBTIQ offices and organisations in universities throughout Australia, as well as other government and non-government organisations. 

As Private Lives 3 uses a non-probability convenience sample, the results may not be representative of the Australian LGBTIQA+ population and cannot be generalised to this population group. However, the data from this survey represent the largest and most diverse sample of LGBTIQ people ever surveyed in Australia and can provide valuable insight. 

FDSV definitions

  • Intimate partner violence refers to forms of violence (such as verbal, physical, sexual or psychological) that occur within the context of an intimate (a close, though not necessarily sexual) relationship, such as a marriage, a de facto partnership or other kinds of less formal relationships,
  • Family violence refers to forms of violence within a family, which may include immediate family, extended family or broader kinship networks.
  • Violence was identified in the survey by asking respondents whether they had experienced:
    • physical violence (e.g., hitting, throwing heavy objects or threats and physical intimidation regardless of whether an injury resulted)
    • verbal abuse (e.g., regular criticism, insults or demeaning language) y sexual assault (e.g., undesired sexual behaviour through force or other means)
    • financial abuse (e.g., had money stolen or access controlled, prevented from working or studying, had debts accrued by them in your name)
    • emotional abuse (e.g., regularly manipulated, humiliated in front of others, gaslighted, bullied, blamed for abuse)
    • harassment or stalking (e.g., monitoring movements, coerced into a relationship commitment or religious practice, forced to stop practicing your own religious or spiritual practices)
    • property damage (e.g., destroying or threatening to destroy possessions or property, including pets)
    • social isolation (e.g., made it difficult to see friends, family or community) 
    • threats of self-harm or suicide (e.g., partner or family member threatened self-harm or suicide)
    • LGBTIQ-related abuse (e.g., shamed you about being LGBTIQ, threatened to ‘out’ you or your HIV status, withheld hormones or medication)
    • ‘other’.

Technical notes

  • Overall, the sexual orientation of respondents was categorised as lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer, asexual or something else. Although respondents were offered, and selected a wide range of sexual orientations, for data analysis purposes and due to relatively low numbers in each of the following groups, respondents who identified as ‘homosexual’, ‘prefer not to have a label’ or ‘something different’ were combined into the ‘something else’ category. This was also done for trans and gender diverse respondents and those with an intersex variation/s who identified as ‘heterosexual.’
  • Due to the relatively small sample size of respondents with an intersex variation/s (n=47), statistically meaningful comparisons with other respondents cannot be made. For that reason, direct comparisons are not made between this group and gender identity or sexual orientation groups, and the acronym LGBTQ+ is used when referring to the Private Lives 3 results.

Report on Government Services – Courts

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

The Report on Government Services includes data for the Federal Court, the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court, the criminal and civil jurisdictions of the supreme courts (including probate registries), district/county courts, magistrates' courts (including children's courts), coroners' courts and the Family Court of WA.

Technical notes

  • In Tasmania, police can issue Police Family Violence Orders (PFVOs) which are more numerous than court-issued orders. PFVOs are excluded from the data.
  • Data on all finalised applications involving a domestic or family violence related protection order includes originating applications only.

Serious Incident Response Scheme

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Quarterly

Coverage: National

When unlawful sexual contact or inappropriate sexual conduct is detected within residential aged care facilities, providers must notify the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. The incident notifications are reviewed and assessed within 24 hours to ensure appropriate responses by providers. Quarterly data on these notifications are available via the Serious Incident Response Scheme from October 2021.

FDSV definitions

  • Unlawful sexual contact or inappropriate sexual conduct includes:
    • any contact or conduct of a sexual nature towards a consumer by a staff member or volunteer on duty, regardless of whether the consumer consented
    • any touching of the consumer’s genital area, anal area or breast by a staff member or volunteer on duty where this is not necessary to provide care or services to the consumer, regardless of whether the consumer consented to the touching
    • any non-consensual contact or conduct of a sexual nature by any person, including but not limited to sexual assault, an act of indecency or sharing of an intimate image of the consumer
    • any conduct toward the consumer with the intention of making it easier to influence the consumer to engage in sexual contact or conduct.
  • Where an incident involves actual, suspected or alleged unlawful sexual contact, this must be reported to the police immediately. 

Services Australia customer data – Crisis payments

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

Services Australia collects data on Crisis Payments for people who are receiving, or eligible to receive, an income support or ABSTUDY Living Allowance, who have experienced changes to their living circumstances due to family and domestic violence and are in severe financial hardship. Data are collected on the number of claims granted and rejected, home situation (victim left home, victim remains in home, perpetrator left home), and the demographic details of the claimant.

FDSV definitions

  • A person claiming Crisis Payment for Extreme Circumstances of Family and Domestic Violence must:
    • be qualified (and payable) for income support (income support recipients);
    • be in severe financial hardship; 
    • have left their home permanently and be unable to return home because of an extreme circumstance, such as family and domestic violence, and have established or intend to establish a new home, or have remained in their home following family and domestic violence and the family member responsible has left or been removed from the home; and
    • must have submitted their claim within 7 days after the extreme circumstance related to family and domestic violence occurred. In recognition that a claimant who has left their home due to family or domestic violence may be suffering from trauma, the 7-day claim period does not commence until they decide they cannot return to their home.

Technical notes

  • A person can be granted a Crisis Payment due to being unable to return home and/or remaining in their home following removal of the family member up to four times in a 12-month period. As a result, count of payments may include multiple payments made to the same person.
  • In this collection, gender is recorded as ‘male’ or ‘female’. In December 2022, Services Australia implemented a change in the Centrelink system to recognise gender other than the sex assigned at birth or during infancy, or a gender which is not exclusively male or female. Until such a time that the privacy and confidentialisation of all individuals can be confirmed, persons identifying as ‘non-binary’ will be reported in total counts and grouped with ‘females’ when reporting by sex. 
  • 'Persons' includes claims granted for all people.
  • Income support includes:
    • Age Pension
    • Youth Allowance as a job seeker, student or Australian Apprentice, ABSTUDY (Living Allowance), Austudy
    • JobSeeker Payment (from 20 March 2020), Newstart Allowance (closed 20 March 2020)
    • Parenting Payment Single and Parenting Payment Partnered
    • Disability Support Pension and Carer Payment
    • Other small payments: Special Benefit and payments that have now ceased (including Partner and Widow Allowance to January 2022, Wife Pension to March 2020, and Sickness Allowance to September 2020).
  • ABSTUDY is a group of means-tested payments (which may include a living allowance and/or other supplementary benefits) for eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and apprentices who are in an approved course, Australian Apprenticeship or traineeship.
  • The total number of people receiving income support was calculated using the DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics – December 2022. Data from the non-expanded data file were used. From July 2023 onwards, only expanded data are available, so the proportion of people receiving income support who received an FDV crisis payment from July 2023 onwards will not be comparable to previous time periods.
  • Changes to eligibility for income support payments over time will affect the number of claims for Crisis Payments that are made.                                                             
  • Changes to the claims process, including implementation and enhancements of an online claim system and changes to the referral process, may impact interpretation of time series data. For example, in June 2020, changes were made to the online claims system, which allowed FDV crisis payment claims to be submitted as an online claim rather than as paper claim form.                         

Workplace Agreements Database

Type: Administrative

Frequency: Ongoing

Coverage: National

The Workplace Agreements Database provides data on developments in coverage, wage increases and conditions of employment included in collective agreements. The database contains information about 160,000 agreements. On average, 6000 agreements are added each year.

Data from the Workplace Agreements Database are available to report on the number of agreements approved that contain an entitlement to paid FDV leave, and the number of people covered by these agreements. These data are only available from 2016 and cannot be used to show the uptake of leave entitlements.

From August 2023, all employees covered by the National Employment Standards are entitled to 10 days of paid FDV leave. 

Technical notes

Female/male statistics are not available for every agreement, so these will not sum to the total number figure.

Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) data

Type: Census

Frequency: Annual

Coverage: National

The WGEA is an Australian Government statutory agency charged with promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces. Under the Workplace Gender Equality Act (Cth) 2012, non-public sector employers with 100 or more employees must report to WGEA annually on six gender equality indicators:

  • workforce gender composition
  • gender composition of governing bodies
  • equal remuneration between women and men
  • availability and utility of employment terms, conditions and practices relating to flexible working arrangements for employees and to working arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities
  • consultation with employees on issues concerning gender equality in the workforce
  • sex-based harassment and discrimination.

In 2022, data were available from 4,800 employers, covering 4.5 million employees for the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

From 2023, the reporting program for the public sector is mandatory from 2023 for eligible federal public sector employers.

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