Are women more likely to be murdered, sexually assaulted and harassed than men?

It is the debate that has been raging across Australia for weeks. And these figures show just how big an issue it really is.

The kidnap and killing of 33-year-old Sarah Everard in London has reignited the conversation about women’s safety and male violence against women.

Many women are angry that the simple act of walking home still isn’t safe, with thousands of people marching across Australia and the world in the Women’s March4Justice on Monday.

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Sarah Everard was walking home when she went missing on March 3. Her remains were later found in woodland. Picture: Metropolitan Police/AFP

But what do the statistics say about murder, sexual assault and sexual harassment in Australia?

ARE WOMEN MORE OR LESS LIKELY TO BE MURDERED THAN MEN?

In short no. In Australia, men are much more likely to be murdered than women.

Australia Bureau of Statistics numbers show that between 2018 and 2019 there were 416 homicide victims, the first national increase in four years.

Over two-thirds (70 per cent) were male (290 victims). Almost a third (30 per cent) were family and domestic violence related (125 victims).

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Figures from the Australian Institute of Criminology show that homicide is generally a male-to-male crime. In 2017-18, males accounted for 84 per cent of identified offenders and females accounted for 16 per cent.

ARE WOMAN MORE LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (FDV) THAN MEN?

Yes, women are much more likely to experience FDV.

A 2018 report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that one in six women and one in 16 men have experienced physical and/or sexual harm by a current or previous partner.

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Groups that were at greater risk were found to be Indigenous women, young women, pregnant women, women separating from their partners, women with disability and women experiencing financial hardship.

In 2018, Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network found that men commit more than 80 per cent of murders between couples who have a history of domestic violence. In the 20 per cent of murders committed by women, over two-thirds were women killing men who had been abusing them.

ARE WOMAN MORE LIKELY TO BE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED THAN MEN?

Yes, women are significantly more likely to be sexually assaulted than men.

ABS statistics show that in 2019 there were 26,892 victims of sexual assault in Australia. The majority (83 per cent) were female (22,337 victims) and around two-thirds (67 per cent) occurred in a residential location (17,395 victims). This was the highest number of victims of sexual assault over the ten-year time series.

In 2019, one in five were male (2173 victims), the highest proportion of male victims recorded across all states and territories. Half of all male victims were children under the age of 15 years (1083 victims).

ABS stats also show that between 2012-13 and 2015-16, the male offender rate for sexual assault and related offences increased from 59 to 71 males per 100,000 males aged 10 years and over. The female rate increased from 3 to 6 females per 100,000 in this time.

ARE MEN MORE LIKELY TO COMMIT SEXUAL ASSAULT THAN WOMEN?

Yes.

Crime statistics show that male sexual assault perpetrators are more common than female perpetrators. Around 1.7 million Australian adults have experienced sexual assault by a male perpetrator since the age of 15 – six times the number of people who have experienced sexual assault by a female perpetrator (299,000) (ABS 2017).

ARE WOMEN MORE LIKELY TO BE SEXUALLY HARASSED AT WORK THAN MEN?

Yes, but the margin isn’t as big as you may think. However, perpetrators are overwhelmingly male.

Every five years the Human Rights Commission conducts a National Workplace Harassment Survey and in 2018 it found there was a significant problem with sexual harassment in the workplace.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a big issue.

“One in three workers in Australia said that they had been sexually harassed at work over the last five years, compared with one in five from our 2012 survey and one in ten in 2003,” said sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins.

The survey found that 39 per cent of Australian women and 26 per cent of Australian men said they had been sexually harassed at work in the past five years. Four out of every five harassers in the workplace were men.

ARE WOMEN MORE LIKELY TO BE SEXUALLY HARASSED IN PUBLIC THAN MEN?

Overwhelmingly, yes.

At Sarah Everard’s vigil, women carried signs saying that 97 per cent of women in the UK have been sexually harassed, this came from a UN Women study that found that 97 per cent of women aged 18 to 24 have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces. The same survey found that 70 per cent of women in all age groups have been harassed.

Sexual harassment can be anything from wolf whistling and unwanted attention to sexual assault and rape.

A survey by the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2018 found that 85 per cent of Australian women and 58 per cent of Australian men have been sexually harassed since the age of 15.

Riah Matthews is the commissioning editor for news.com.au.

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