New data reveals high levels of emotional abuse in Australia
29 August 2022 at 3:59 pm
Advocates say the data release reinforces the need to address inequality, discrimination and attitudes that support violence.
An analysis of Personal Safety Survey (PSS) data reveals more than three million Australian adults — including over two million women — have experienced emotional abuse, known as coercive control, by a partner at some point since the age of 15.
The 2016 PSS data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) also showed an estimated 2.2 million adult women (23 per cent) and 1.4 million adult men (16 per cent) experienced coercive control since their teenage years.
ABS director of the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics Will Milne said the new analysis identified a number of socio-demographic characteristics that were associated with higher rates of partner emotional abuse, including single parenthood, people with intellectual or psychological disabilities, and people experiencing financial stress.
Childhood experiences of abuse and exposure to violence were also found to double the risk of experiencing partner emotional abuse later in life.
Women who were physically and sexually abused as children were three times more likely to experience coercvie control in adulthood than women who did not.
The data also showed those who experienced emotional abuse were more likely to have also experienced other forms of domestic violence.
“We found that over half of women (58 per cent) and a quarter of men (26 per cent) who experienced partner emotional abuse had also experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner. The rate of partner violence was over eight times higher than for those who had not experienced emotional abuse,” Milne explained.
Full Stop Australia CEO Hayley Foster said that the new analysis was shocking but not surprising.
“We know that people who are impacted by multiple forms of discrimination are at greater risk, particularly for those who are financial dependent,” she said.
She added that the PSS data demonstrated the need to tackle attitudes that support violence as well as systematic discrimination and inequality within society, to “put a full stop to domestic, family and sexual violence”.
Foster also called for more data to be released on the risk factors that make it more likely for someone to perpetrate abuse.
Read the full analysis from the ABS online.
If you or someone you know is in crisis or needs assistance, please call the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Lifeline 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero (000).
