Thousands of Australian women suffered domestic abuse for the first time during the pandemic

A shocking trend has emerged with women falling victim to crimes across Australia. Read the full disturbing details.

A quarter of women suffered domestic violence for the first time during the pandemic, a disturbing new study shows.

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) found 3.4 per cent of women in relationships were violently assaulted, 3.2 per cent were sexually assaulted and 18 per cent were subjected to emotionally abusive, harassing and controlling behaviours, since the start of Covid-19.

The AIC survey, of 15,000 women, revealed 32 per cent of women had suffered some form of abuse during the pandemic — and for women already in abusive relationships, there was an increase in the severity or frequency.

Almost half (42 per cent) who experienced physical violence before the pandemic reported it got worse after Covid struck.

Domestic violence has risen during the pandemic, with many Australian women experiencing it for the first time.

“The impacts of Covid-19, and measures put in place to limit transmission, can be wide-ranging,” Louise York, from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) which released the data on Thursday, said.

“Victims and perpetrators spending more time together, or increased financial stress, can be associated with increased severity or frequency of violence.”

Counselling service Full Stop Australia is bracing for even more violence in the months ahead.

Tara Hunter, Director of Counselling Services, said the report showed what happened “in the first wave”.

“We’ve certainly seen a service increase in calls in our service in the last couple of months as people come out of lockdown. I think we’re only just learning what the impacts of that are going to be,” she said.

Louise York Community Services Group Head, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Picture: supplied

Tara Hunter of Full Stop Australia.

What is also concerning is the number of women who are not accessing services for help – the report said a third of women hadn’t sought advice from police or domestic violence services.

“There are challenges and people often not wanting to [seek help], I think that is a consistent pattern with people accessing healthcare, we saw that through the pandemic with health leaders saying, ‘if you’ve got health problems you need to come into a hospital but people had those underlying fears and worries’,” she said.

Women in abusive relationships experienced an increase in frequency and severity during the pandemic.

Ms Hunter said the long term impacts needed to be carefully managed.

“That’s the stuff for services like ours, it’s just not saying ‘the crisis is over’. We need to think about those lasting impacts for people.”

The AIHW also released data examining hospital stays of family violence victims, with 6500 hospitalisations each year.

“The hospital stays included in this report relate to more severe experiences of family and domestic violence, most likely physical or sexual in nature, and requiring admitted hospital treatment and care. They do not include presentations to emergency departments,” Ms York said.

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