loading . . . New figures expose a hard truth: women’s greatest risk of physical violence is at home New data has revealed a complex and gendered reality to physical assault in Australia, showing women are significantly more likely to be assaulted by someone they know, particularly an intimate partner or family member, while men’s experiences of violence are more often linked to strangers.
According to the latest release by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were about 210,000 men and 180,000 women who experienced physical assault in the last 12 months.
According to the new figures, in women’s most recent incident of physical assault, the perpetrator was most often a family member or intimate partner (44 per cent), and about half of the assaults occurred in a home (48 per cent).
Women who experienced physical assault were also much more likely (56 per cent) than men (44 per cent) to experience multiple incidents of assault in the last 12 months.
In contrast, in men’s most recent incident of physical assault, the perpetrator was often a stranger (56 per cent) and most of their assaults occurred outside of the home (72 per cent).
These differences shown in the latest ABS statistics are in line with decades of research which point to women being at higher risk of experiencing violence (mostly from men they know) at home. Men are more commonly the perpetrators of physical violence, sexual violence and harassment, according to Our Watch. Meanwhile, men are most likely to be assaulted by another man in a public space.
In Australia, around one in four men aged 18 to 45 say they have used physical and/or sexual violence against an intimate partner.
The ABS figures also point to a welcome, small drop in the rate of physical assaults for women aged 15 and over over the last decade. The rate fell from two per cent in 2014-2015 to 1.6 per cent in 2024-25. During this period, there was no significant change for men.
Concerningly, more than one in four physical assaults occurred in the workplace for both women and men. It’s an issue that deserves more attention, especially as Australia’s workplace safety laws fail to keep pace with the current evidence on gendered violence prevention.
Meanwhile, rates of police reporting about physical assaults were similar between men and women, with 55 per cent and 58 per cent respectively reporting their most recent physical assault to police. These figures come in the same week that the NSW and federal governments joined forces to deliver a new funding package to create a workforce of specialist sexual violence justice system navigators.
These figures follow a separate release by the ABS last week, that showed the number of offenders proceeded against by police for family and domestic violence rose by 8 per cent, or over 7,000 offenders, in the past year.
It was the highest recorded offender rate since national data on the issue was first published in 2019-2020.
**If you or someone you know are in immediate danger, call 000.**
**If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic and family violence, call theNSW Domestic Violence Line on 1800 65 64 63 for free counselling and referrals, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.**
**For confidential advice, support, and referrals, contact1800 RESPECT or 13 YARN.**
**For information on Men’s Behaviour Change Programs operating in your local area, contact theMen’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.**
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Australian Bureau of Statisticsviolence
by Madeline Hislop
2 hours ago
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