The following story discusses sexual assault and domestic violence
This week marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women — a domain in which Australia still has a long way to go, as the above graph shows.
Recorded assaults against women are rising. The scourge of domestic assaults hits all age levels but is most acute for women aged 20-34. Intimate partners are the most common perpetrators of assaults.
In the case of sexual assault, however, victims are most commonly aged 10-19, and the most common perpetrators are other family members including parents.
Everybody deserves to feel safe at home, and it’s clear this is an area in which more policy action is desperately needed.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.
The article deserves an outright fail, Jason, even as a Yr10 composition, because your (apparently) insular view of the world prevented you from undertaking a ‘compare and contrast’ exercise that would have been much more edifying.
For example, compare not just ‘raw’ assaults but various forms of assault with various countries in Europe. THEN emulate Rundle (a half reasonable essay today but with comments surpressed – ho hum [what about the subscribers with a degree in Sociology – only]) with an attempt to explain or comprehend the phenomenon. So, let’s try again.
What an absolute fizzer. Here I was expecting some detailed and in depth insight to Family Violence (FV) and this is all you present??? Really?? Why bother??
You produce one graph (next to useless) for example, are you aware that FV is one of the most under –reported crimes along with you guessed it sexual assault/harassment.
Anyone looking to get a heads up on some basics of FV would have found nothing in your article. You had the opportunity to inform and open up discussion and failed at both miserably. Your article as a serious attempt to inform on one of Australia’s most pressing issues was a waste of time.
The fact that one women a day is killed in a FV incident in Australia should have been flagged as an example of its importance. The economic cost to the nation might have been of interest as well.
My old mate Erasmus mentions comparing FV in Australia to some European nations. The ‘Nordic Paradox’ comes to mind here immediately where the Nordic nations are by far the most enlightened in terms of women’s rights and gender equality and equity and yet have higher/similar rates of violence against women as in Australia. WHY IS IT SO????
Is FV a class issue – always sure to get the feminists into a frenzy yet in the US A the poorer and more economically unequal states have more negative attitudes to female rights and gender equality/equity.
.
So many options to have made some meaningful comment on this hidden issue yet all ignored.
It is difficult to make the case that what you finally produced was better than nothing.
Sorry, Jase, I have to agree.
At the very least you should provide a link to the ABS data so we can see how domestic assault and sexual assault are defined, sample size, margin of error, etc. We can’t make a meaningful comparison even in-country, over time, without a lot more detail. If it’s just a data dump, then at least give us the actual data, not a half-baked interpretation of it.
Can that even be called an article?
Well at least you told us the statistics and said it is still rising.
I think people have the idea it is going down. I don’t know how long the government is going to keep blaming ‘advertising’ and ‘more reports’ and ‘not necessarily’ more violence for the rise in violence statistics.
Also, I don’t like the way the police separate the family violence statistics and then say: ‘but violence against strangers is going down… therefore we are doing well…’
They are not doing well. You’d be surprised how badly they are doing.
Especially in Victoria, where you can actually stab and try to kill your family member and then get bail (then go on to commit the Bourke street massacre).
Everyone can keep telling themselves that family violence doesn’t affect them… but the Lindt cafe siege, and the Bourke street massacre show it isn’t so. Those two were on bail for family violence (serious stabbing and death) offences…. just bailed like it was nothing…
So as a society we can keep bailing domestic abusers and they will keep hurting others as well as their family.