Violence - Prevalence

Information regarding experiences of violence since the age of 15 was obtained from men and women aged 18 years and over in the 2021-22 PSS.

Prevalence refers to the number and proportion (rate) of men and women who have experienced violence within a specified timeframe – usually in the last 12 months and since the age of 15. The Violence Prevalence topic is designed to produce a range of prevalence estimates for men's and women's experiences of violence, according to the type of violence, the sex and type of perpetrator, and timeframe.

In the PSS, violence is defined as any incident involving the occurrence, attempt or threat of either sexual or physical assault. Violence can be broken down into two main categories: sexual violence and physical violence.

Sexual violence is defined as the occurrence, attempt or threat of sexual assault experienced by a person since the age of 15. There are two components of sexual violence:

• Sexual assault is an act of a sexual nature carried out against a person’s will through the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion, including any attempts to do this. This includes rape, attempted rape, aggravated sexual assault (assault with a weapon), indecent assault, penetration by objects, forced sexual activity that did not end in penetration and attempts to force a person into sexual activity. Incidents so defined would be an offence under State and Territory criminal law. Sexual assault excludes unwanted sexual touching, which for the purposes of this survey is defined as Sexual Harassment.
• Sexual threat is the threat of acts of a sexual nature that were made face-to-face where the person believed it was able to and likely to be carried out.

Information was collected separately in the survey about experiences of sexual assault and sexual threat. This information was combined to provide an aggregate (total) number of persons who have experienced sexual violence (assault and/or threat) since the age of 15. Persons who have experienced both types of sexual violence are only counted once in the aggregated sexual violence total.

Physical violence is defined as the occurrence, attempt or threat of physical assault experienced by a person since the age of 15. There are two components of physical violence:

• Physical assault is any incident that involved the use of physical force with the intent to harm or frighten a person. It excludes incidents that occurred during the course of play on a sporting field.
• Physical threat is any attempt to inflict physical harm, or a threat or suggestions of intent to inflict physical harm, which was made face-to-face and which the person believed was able and likely to be carried out. It excludes incidents of violence in which the threat was actually carried out and incidents which occurred during the course of play on a sporting field.

Information was collected separately in the survey about experiences of physical assault and physical threat. This information was combined to provide an aggregate (total) number of persons who have experienced physical violence (assault and/or threat) since the age of 15. Persons who have experienced both types of physical violence are only counted once in the aggregated physical violence total.

Relationship to perpetrator refers to the relationship of the perpetrator to the respondent. There are seven key perpetrator types in the PSS:

• Stranger – Someone the respondent did not know, or someone they only knew by hearsay.
• Current partner – A partner the respondent currently lives with in a married or de facto relationship.
• Previous partner – A person who the respondent lived with at some point in a married or de facto relationship, whom they are now separated, divorced, or widowed from.
• Boyfriend/girlfriend or date – This relationship may have different levels of commitment and involvement that does not involve living together. For example, this will include respondents who have had one date only, regular dating with no sexual involvement, or a serious sexual or emotional relationship. It excludes de facto relationships.
• Ex-boyfriend/girlfriend or date – A former relationship that involved either regular dating or a serious sexual or emotional relationship but that didn't include living together.
• Family member – Includes father/mother, son/daughter, brother/sister, and other relative or in-law.
• Other known person – This is defined as any other known person who does not fit into any of the partner, boyfriend/girlfriend or date, ex-boyfriend/girlfriend or date, or family member categories.

The following relationship categories have also been created to support analysis of partner violence data:

• Cohabiting partner – A person the respondent lives with (current partner) or lived with at some point (previous partner), in a married or de facto relationship.
• Intimate partner – Includes current partner (living with), previous partner (has lived with), boyfriend/girlfriend/date and ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend (never lived with).

The Violence Prevalence topic consists of a set of questions repeated eight times, focusing on a different type of violence each time.

Respondents were asked about their experiences of four types of violence – physical assault, physical threat, sexual assault, sexual threat – by both a male and a female perpetrator. This produced the following eight types of violence in total:

1. Sexual assault by a male
2. Sexual assault by a female
3. Sexual threat by a male
4. Sexual threat by a female
5. Physical assault by a male
6. Physical assault by a female
7. Physical threat by a male
8. Physical threat by a female

Respondents were asked whether they have ever (since the age of 15) experienced each of the eight types of violence described above, and were instructed to include incidents that occurred on the job, at school, or overseas.

For each of the 8 types of violence experienced, respondents were asked to identify all the perpetrator types that had ever perpetrated the violence against them since the age of 15. These perpetrator types included:

• stranger
• boyfriend or girlfriend or date
• current partner
• previous partner
• ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend
• father/mother
• son/daughter
• brother/sister
• other relative or in-law
• friend or housemate
• acquaintance or neighbour
• employer/manager/supervisor
• co-worker
• teacher/tutor
• client/patient/customer
• medical practitioner
• priest/minister/rabbi or other spiritual advisor
• carer
• other known person.

If ‘other known person’ was selected, a trigram coder was available to select a response. This use of a trigram coder (which was introduced for the 2021-22 cycle) allowed responses to be recoded to the above categories at the time of the survey to facilitate correct sequencing for the remainder of the topic/survey. See Data Processing and Coding chapter for more details on the use of trigram coders.

Based on these relationship to perpetrator questions, the PSS can provide (depending on data quality) estimates of the number and proportion of men and women who have experienced any of the eight types of violence since the age of 15 by any of the 19 perpetrator types listed above (8 types of violence x 19 perpetrator types produce a maximum of 152 prevalence rates).

Where a respondent had experienced one or more of the eight types of violence by one or more of the seven key perpetrator types (stranger, current partner, previous partner, boyfriend/girlfriend/date, ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend, family member, other known person), they were asked when the most recent incident occurred for each type of perpetrator for each type of violence experienced.

This means that prevalence rates for specific timeframes (last 12 months, last two years, last three years etc.) are available for any of the eight types of violence by any of the seven perpetrator types (8 types of violence x 7 perpetrator types produce a maximum of 56 prevalence rates, which can be restricted to specified timeframes). Prevalence rates for specific timeframes are also available for partner perpetrator categories (cohabiting partner, intimate partner).

A hierarchy of violence types exists in the PSS to ensure any single incident of violence is not counted more than once. Sexual assault is considered the most serious crime type and so is prioritised and asked first. The ranking of the hierarchy from most serious at the top is as follows:

1. Sexual assault
2. Face-to-face sexual threat
3. Physical assault
4. Face-to-face physical threat

Examples of where incidents would only be counted once:

• If a respondent experienced physical assault and physical threat in the same incident, this was counted once only as a physical assault.
• If a respondent experienced sexual threat and physical threat in the same incident, this was counted once only as a sexual threat.
• If an incident of sexual assault also involved physical assault or threats, this was counted once only as a sexual assault.

The data items and related output categories for this topic are contained within the Violence – Prevalence tab in the data item list available under Downloads. In addition, aggregate data items relating to this topic are contained within the SPS Level – VIO Aggregates tab.

Violence prevalence data can be used to examine:

• the estimated number and proportion (rate) of men and women who have experienced violence, broken down by (depending on data quality) the type of violence, the type of perpetrator, the sex of perpetrator, and the timeframe. This can also be done for aggregated categories e.g. combining sexual assault and sexual threat to produce a prevalence rate for sexual violence, or combining current partner and previous partner to produce a prevalence rate for cohabiting partner (current and/or previous). Aggregates will only count each person once, despite how many types of violence included in the aggregate that they have experienced.
• differences in violence prevalence rates between men and women and other socio-demographic groups of interest, using 12- or 24- month timeframes.
• when the most recent incident of violence occurred for the following perpetrator types for each of the eight types of violence: stranger, boyfriend/girlfriend/date, current partner (living with), previous partner (lived with), other known person, ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend (never lived with), cohabiting partner, intimate partner, family member.
• changes in the prevalence of violence over time, by comparing 12- or 24- month prevalence data from the 2021-22 PSS with 12- or 24- month prevalence data from previous editions of the PSS.

Violence prevalence data cannot be used to examine:

• timeframe for the individual perpetrator types that form the groups of ‘family’ or ‘other group', as these were not collected.  For example, the timeframe for mother is not available as mother was collected as part of the ‘family’ group.
• the prevalence of violence before the age of 15 (information about physical and sexual abuse experienced before the age of 15 is collected in a different topic of the survey – see the Abuse before the age of 15 chapter of this publication).
• the number of violent incidents experienced. The counting unit in the PSS is always persons, and not incidents.

Points to be considered when using and interpreting data for this topic include the following:

• Violence in the PSS is defined in terms of a set of specific behaviours, which may not align with legal definitions used in state/territory criminal codes. Whether or not any incident of violence amounted to a criminal offence cannot be determined from the information collected.
• Sexual assault includes any attempted sexual assaults, while physical assault excludes attempted physical assaults.
• Determinations about whether violence occurred are based on the respondent’s subjective perceptions concerning the incident, interpreted within the context of the behaviours identified in the survey.
• Threats that did not occur face-to-face are not counted in the threat data. Therefore, the threat data is not representative of all types of threats that could occur.
• Estimates of the number of incidents of violence and number of perpetrators are not able to be produced based on the data collected.

Prevalence rates across the 1996 Women’s Safety Survey and all PSS cycles are comparable. However, the following should be noted when making comparisons:

• Analysis of changes over time are not recommended for timeframes that overlap.
• The 1996 WSS did not have a hierarchy applied to the violence types as has been applied to the PSS (see Hierarchy of violence types collected in the PSS in the Methodology section of this chapter).
• The range of perpetrator types asked about has expanded across the surveys, meaning prevalence rates for some perpetrator types in later editions of the survey may not exist in earlier editions (see table below for details).
• From the 2016 PSS onwards there was a change in the collection mode, whereby additional instructions were added to the questionnaire. This includes instructions to include incidents of violence that occurred on the job, at school, or overseas. These added instructions do not affect the comparability of PSS data from 2016 onwards with data prior to 2016 as these instructions were previously included in the interviewer instructions.
• Timeframe data for violence by an ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend and violence by an intimate partner were added from the 2016 PSS onwards, while timeframe data for violence by a family member was added in the 2021-22 PSS. Timeframe data for these perpetrator categories are not available in previous editions of the PSS.
• Multiple versions of the other known person timeframe data item, which include/exclude ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend/family members as required, have been produced so that appropriate comparisons can be made across time.