Revealed: who’s at most risk of violence

Indigenous Australians are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised as a result of family violence than non-indigenous people.

Indigenous Australians are 32 times more likely to be admitted to hospital as a result of family ­violence than non-indigenous people, a government report found.

The report from the Aust­ralian Institute of Health and Welfare lays bare the shocking statistics, with women, people with disabilities, children and indigeno­us Australians more likely to be affected by violence or sexual harassment.

It shows that between July 2014 and 2016, on average, a woman was killed by her partner every nine days, compared with 29 days for men.

And one in six women will experience­ physical or sexual abuse before the age of 15.

Institute spokeswoman Louise York said the report, due for release today, brought together information from a range of government sources to help identify who in society was most vulnerable to sexual or family violence.

“Family, domestic and sexual violence can take many forms, including physical and sexual violence, emotional abuse, or attempts to control another person’s behaviour,” Ms York said.

“The impacts of family, domestic and sexual violence on children and adolescents can be long-lasting, affecting their health, wellbeing, education, relationships and housing outcomes.”

The report states that the extreme­ly high rates of family violen­ce within the indigenous community need to be “understood as both a cause and effect of social disadvantage and inter­generational trauma”.

Family violence within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities covers extended family or kinship relationships, to reflect common household arrange­ments. Crime data shows that most indigenous assaults reported to police were committed by a family member and that indigenous Australians were more likely to be murdered by a family member. The most common location for the assaults was within the family home, with 80 per cent of incidents taking place there.

The Australian revealed yester­day that the latest data from the Nat­ional Critical Res­ponse Trauma Recovery Project, which is compiling data on Aust­ralia’s indigenous suicide crisis, showed nearly two-thirds of indig­enous people who took their own lives this year had experienced domestic violence, and a third of ­indigenous children who committed suicide had been victim­s of sexual abuse.

According to the institute’s report­, hospital data shows that indigenous females older than 15 are 34 times more likely than non-indigenous women to be admitted to hospital as a result of family violence, while indigenous men are 27 times more likely than non-indigenous men.

Court data shows indigenous Australians are disproportionately represented as sexual assault defendants. Admission to hospital of indigenous Australians as a result of family violence is significantly higher in remote areas, compared with region­al areas and major cities.

The higher instance of family violence outside major cities is not confined to the indigenous population. All women living outside major cities are more likely to experience violence from a partner, with 23 per cent of regional women affected compared with 15 per cent of city dwellers.

Men living in regional areas are also more likely to be abused by their partners. The number of assaults by family members has remained relatively stable since 2005, despite violence from any person declining significantly.

More people are accessing service­s due to family violence.

People with disabilities are more likely to experience ­physical violence and emotional abuse from a partner than those without a disability.