Women's experiences of male violence : findings from the Australian component of the International Violence Against Women Survey (IVAWS)

Jenny Mouzos and Toni Makkai
ISBN 0 642 53842 5 ; ISSN 1326-6004
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2004
(Research and public policy series, no. 56)

Executive summary

The International Violence Against Women Survey (IVAWS) was conducted across Australia between December 2002 and June 2003. A total of 6,677 women aged between 18 and 69 years participated in the survey, and provided information on their experiences of physical and sexual violence. This report describes the type of violence (including threats of violence) by current and former intimate male partners, other known males, such as relatives, friends and acquaintances, and strangers. It also examines women's reported experiences of childhood violence, as well as their perceptions and reactions to the violence they experienced.

The IVAWS measures three distinctive types of violence against women:

• physical (including threats of physical violence);
• sexual (including unwanted sexual touching); and
• psychological (controlling behaviours, such as put downs, keeping track of whereabouts).

Some of the findings to arise from the analyses of the responses of women who participated in the IVAWS are as follows:

Overall violence

In the past 12 months, 10 per cent of the women surveyed reported experiencing at least one incident of physical and/or sexual violence. They were more likely to report physical violence (8%) than sexual violence (4%).

Fifty-seven per cent of the women surveyed reported experiencing at least one incident of physical violence or sexual violence over their lifetime. They were more likely to experience physical violence (48%) rather than sexual violence (34%).

The most common form of physical violence during the lifetime was threats of physical harm (33%). However these were often accompanied by actual physical violence.

Sexual touching was the most common form of sexual violence (about a quarter over their lifetime, and three per cent during the last 12 months).

The risk of violence was found to vary based on a number of socio-demographic characteristics. These included:

• younger women reported higher levels of physical and sexual violence than older women;
• Indigenous women reported higher levels of physical violence during the lifetime compared to non-Indigenous women; and
• women who were not in a current relationship reported higher levels of physical and sexual violence during the last 12 months compared to women who were in a current relationship.

Intimate partner violence

Over a third of women who had a current or former intimate partner reported experiencing at least one form of violence during the lifetime. However, the levels of violence experienced from a former partner (36%) were much higher than from a current partner (10%). Women who experienced violence from former partners were also more likely to sustain injuries and feel that their lives were in danger.

The strongest risk factors for current intimate partner physical violence (9%) were associated with aspects of male behaviour. These were:

• drinking habits (gets drunk a couple of times a month or more);
• general levels of aggression (violent outside of the family); and
• controlling behaviour.

Non-partner violence

Two out of five women surveyed reported that since the age of 16 years they had experienced at least one incident of physical/sexual violence from a male other than a partner (other relative, other known male or stranger; 7% in the past twelve months). Unlike intimate partner violence, where the women reported experiencing higher levels of physical than sexual violence, women who experienced non-partner violence reported similar levels of physical and sexual violence (27% respectively).

Of the three main categories of non-partners, women reported higher levels of violence from some other known male (23%), followed by a stranger (20%), and a relative (10%). A number of other differences in non-partner violence were also noted. These were:

• women who were victimised by a friend, acquaintance or work colleague reported higher levels of sexual violence than physical violence (18% versus 11%);
• few women were physically injured by non-partners during the most recent incidents of violence (16%). Incidents involving other relatives resulted in the highest proportion of injuries (29%);
• one in five women felt that their lives were in danger during the most recent incident of violence from non-partners; and
• women victimised by strangers reported higher levels of fear (30%) than women victimised by other relatives (23%) or other known males (15%).

Like intimate partner violence, some groups of women in the IVAWS reported higher levels of non-partner violence. Young, single women or women who have boyfriends were most at risk of violence from a relative, friend, acquaintance, work colleague or stranger.

Childhood victimisation

Overall, 29 per cent of women surveyed reported that they had experienced physical and/or sexual violence before the age of 16 years, with almost one in five experiencing this abuse by parents. Sixteen per cent of women reported sexual abuse by some other person (relative or some other male). Women who experienced abuse during childhood were one and a half times more likely to experience any violence in adulthood.

Perceptions and reactions to violence

In addition to examining the level and type of violence experienced by the women who participated in the IVAWS, it is also important to add some context to the violence experienced. Women were asked about their perceptions of the most recent incident of intimate and non-partner violence. They were asked to consider the most recent incident in terms of its seriousness and whether they regarded it as a crime. A number of differences emerged:

• women who experienced violence in a former relationship or sexual violence by a parent or someone else in childhood were most likely to regard the experience as 'very serious';
• stranger perpetrated incidents were perceived as 'crimes' more often than incidents from known males (intimate partners, other relatives, friends or acquaintances); and
• one in ten victims of physical and/or sexual violence by current spouses and one in five victims of physical and/or sexual violence by boyfriends regarded the incident as a crime.

Women were also asked if they sought assistance from a specialised agency or contacted police. Very few women sought assistance from a specialised agency. They did however indicate that they had spoken to someone else, usually a friend or neighbour about what had happened to them.

Few women reported the most recent incident of physical and/or sexual violence to police. Fourteen per cent of these women had been victimised by an intimate partner and sixteen per cent of women victimised by any non-partner.

Incidents perpetrated by strangers were more likely than incidents by known males to be reported to the police (27% compared to 10%). While the reasons for not reporting to the police are varied, almost half of the women who did not report the incident thought that it was too minor to involve the police or judicial authorities. Overall, only four per cent of women who experienced intimate partner violence perceived the most recent incident to be 'very serious' and a crime, and reacted by contacting an agency and reporting the incident to police. For women who experienced non-partner violence, the figure is only two per cent.

Policy intitiatives

The analyses of the responses of the women who participated in the IVAWS suggest a number of avenues for policy in terms of intervention and prevention of violence against women. Future efforts could include:

• early interventions to reduce risks and harms associated with childhood abuse, and the prevention of intergenerational transmission of violence;
• targeting young persons with education on how to build healthy relationships;
• increasing assistance to women to escape conflict situations. This could include: increasing community awareness of the issue, information for women of their rights and available support, as well as a greater availability of support services;
• emphasising that violence is recognised and responded to as a crime; and
• innovations in the criminal justice system such as specialised courts for domestic/family violence.

Methodological caveats

There are a number of methodological caveats, which may affect the results. As the IVAWS was a telephone survey, participation was limited to women living in households with telephones. As a result women who are homeless or living in group facilities or institutions or women who rely solely on a mobile phone and do not have a landline telephone were excluded.

The IVAWS sample has been weighted to represent all females aged between 18 and 69 in the population by age and geographic area. As the estimates are based on the sample and not the whole female population, they are subject to sampling variability. Estimates presented in the report with high relative standard errors should be used with caution.

Finally, as a voluntary survey women could and did refuse to participate. Of the 17,247 households that were contacted by telephone, 6,677 women were interviewed in the IVAWS resulting in an effective participation rate of 39 per cent. Although the sample has been weighted, it is possible that some unknown bias could be affecting the results.