Young Australians and domestic violence, 2001
These findings come from a survey of 5,000 Australians aged between 12 and 20 undertaken in 1998 and 1999 by the Crime Research Centre at the University of Western Australia and Donovan Research:- 23% of the young people surveyed had witnessed an incident of physical or domestic violence against their mother or stepmother.
- Young people of lower socioeconomic status were about one and a half times more likely to be aware of violence towards their mothers or fathers than those from upper socioeconomic households.
- Indigenous youth were significantly more likely to have witnessed physical domestic violence between their parents or parents’ partners. In the case of male to female violence, the rate was 42%, compared to 23% for all respondents, and for female to male violence the rate was 33%, compared to 22%.
- Almost 70% of the young people surveyed had had a boyfriend or girlfriend at some stage. About one in three of these young people (both males and females) reported incidents in their personal relationships that could be defined as ‘physical violence’.
Source: Indermaur, D. 2001, Young Australians and Domestic Violence, Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, no. 195, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra. Full report [viewed 28/11/2006].
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