CHANGES IN PREVALENCE OF PARTNER VIOLENCE OVER TIME

Between 2005 and 2012 there was no statistically significant change in the proportion of women and men who reported experiencing partner violence in the 12 months prior to the survey (Refer Table 21).

For women:

• In both 2005 and again in 2012 an estimated 1.5% of all women aged 18 years and over reported experiencing violence by a partner in the 12 months prior to the survey.

For men:

• In 2005 an estimated *0.4% of all men aged 18 years and over had experienced violence in the 12 months prior to interview compared to 0.6% in 2012. * this estimate has an RSE between 25% and 50% and should be used with caution. Whilst it may appear that more men experienced partner violence in the 12 months prior to survey in 2012, when the sampling error of these estimates, as measured by the RSE is taken into consideration these estimates are not statistically significantly different (refer to Endnote 1 for information about significance testing).

CHARACTERISTICS OF PARTNER VIOLENCE

Where a person reported experiencing any type of violence by a current or previous partner, additional information was collected about the actions taken, consequences, and the impact of the violence over the course of the relationship. As a person may have experienced violence by both a current partner and a previous partner, information was collected separately about violence by both partner types. Where a person experienced violence by more than one previous partner, they were asked to focus on their most recently violent previous partner and what happened with that particular previous partner (note: this detailed information is not collected for all their violent previous partner relationships).

This provides a powerful dataset with comprehensive information for what happens when a person experiences:

• Violence by a current partner; and
• Violence by a previous partner.
  

The characteristics of current partner and previous partner violence are not able to be added to produce a total for characteristics of "partner violence". Conceptually it is invalid to add together data about the characteristics for current and previous partner violence, as actions a person may take could differ depending on the type of partner. This would also double count all persons who have experienced violence by both a current and a previous partner. (Refer to Endnote 2 for an example).

Due to the relatively small numbers of men who have experienced violence by a current partner, it was not always possible to provide the same level of detailed information for men as for women. Many of the detailed estimates for men's experience of violence by a current partner are subject to very high sampling error (for further details refer to the Technical Note). For this reason only limited information on men's experience of violence by a current partner are included in the tables and commentary relating to violence by a current partner. This was also the case for some of the more detailed data regarding men's experience of violence by their most recently violent previous partner.

END NOTES

Endnote 1
All differences and changes mentioned have been tested for statistical significance with a 95% level of confidence that there is a real difference in the two populations being tested. To determine whether there is a statistical difference between any other two estimates, significance testing should be undertaken. For further information, refer to the Technical Note.

Endnote 2
As a person's actions will differ depending on the type of partner they have experienced violence by, conceptually it would be invalid to add together actions for violence by a current partner and violence by a previous partner. For example, if a person had contacted the police about the violence by their most recently violent previous partner but had never contacted police about the violence by their current partner, it is impossible to calculate an estimate of whether or not this person has contacted the police about "partner violence" - they both have and haven't. For further details refer to 'Interpretation of results' in the Explanatory Notes.

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