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Learn about the facts and figures of the impact of domestic and family violence on Australian communities.

The first six months of 2024 has been a horrendous outcome for our communities resulting in an Australian woman being violently killed every four days. It used to be one woman a week. The rate at which women are being killed is significantly higher in 2024 than in recent years.

The country’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese has declared this violence against women a “national crisis”. More than ever before the work of Next Steps Australia has become increasingly important in supporting the survivors of domestic violence and their children.

In 2016, the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence published a wide-ranging report with the aim of identifying the most effective ways to, among other things, prevent family violence, support survivors – particularly women and children – and address the impacts of violence on them, and better coordinate community and government responses to family violence.

In making its recommendations, the Royal Commission found that a high proportion of survivors of family violence are forced to leave their homes and seek alternative accommodation.

Next Steps Australia is a registered charity who help families in need

THE FACTS

1 in 4

Australian women experience intimate partner violence. [1]

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Children are present at 1 out of every 3 family violence cases reported to the police.[2]

61

of women affected by family violence had children in their care.[4]

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Domestic and family violence is the principal cause of homelessness for women and their children. [5]

On average, one woman a week is killed by a partner or former partner in Australia. [3]

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Domestic and family violence results in a police call-out on average once every two minutes across the country.[6]

The combined health, administration and social welfare costs of violence against women have been estimated to be $21.7 billion a year, with projections suggesting that if no further action is taken to prevent violence against women, costs will accumulate to $323.4 billion over a thirty-year period from 2014-15 to 2044-2045.[7]

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Expand for Foot Notes

[1] Cox, P. (2015) Violence against women: Additional analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Personal Safety Survey 2012, Horizons Research Report, Issue 1, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), Sydney.

[2] Crime Statistics Agency, 2016

[3] Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), 2015

[4] Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Personal Safety Survey, 2012

[5] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2012) Specialist homeless services data collection 2011-2012

[6] Calculated for police data sourced across all states and territories, collated at ABC News.

[7] Price Waterhouse Coopers (2015) ‘A high price to pay: the economic case for preventing violence against women’ report prepared for Our Watch and the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth)