New figures from the ABS's Personal Safety Survey reveal about a quarter of young women feel unsafe when walking alone in their local area at nightfall. Gay women, women with a disability and women students all feel the same way.
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No wonder. The prevalence of sexual violence increases as the age of the victims decreases. The rate was highest for women aged 18 to 24 years - one in eight. It's the same for physical violence, where the two-year prevalence rate for women 18 to 24 is more than one in 10. And lowest in both instances for women over 55.
It's even worse when it comes to sexual harassment - over one-third of women aged 18 to 24 experienced sexual harassment in the last survey, from unwanted touching to indecent exposure.
You only have to see what happens to young women even on the public stage to see how bad it is - Jenni Hermoso, Spain's top football player, experienced sexual harassment with a billion eyes watching.
Nationally, 1.3 million women experienced sexual harassment in the last 12 months. Of these, 70 per cent experienced face-to-face harassment, more than 57 per cent experienced harassment electronically and 97 per cent were harassed by a male perpetrator.
Padma Raman, the CEO of ANROWS, says the results are deeply concerning - but not surprising.
"In all three categories - physical violence, sexual violence and sexual harassment - the rates of violence were much higher for young women between 18-24 years old."
Last year, ANROWS released research led by Deb Loxton which showed that for women under 30, at least half have experienced sexual violence.
"The rate in which young women are experiencing violence is worrying and has implications for how we understand and respond to violence against women," said Raman.
And once again, students suffer. The rate of physical violence for women studying is nearly triple those who aren't currently studying - 11 per cent compared to 3.9 per cent. The rate of sexual violence was far higher for women studying compared with women who were not currently studying (7.7 per cent compared to 2.2 per cent).
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Ben Yates, ANU Students' Association president, says universities don't recognise student safety is their responsibility. He said the results of the 2022 National Student Safety Survey showed clearly that disability, queer identity and other marginalised experiences made students more likely to experience sexual violence.
"Universities around the country have consistently avoided taking responsibility for the scourge of gender-based violence.
"We must develop communities where violence is not tolerated and perpetrators are held accountable," he said. "We need to see responses to violence that recognise the differentiated experiences of people with other marginalised identities."
Will Milne, the director of the Australian Bureau of Statistics National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics (NCCJS) said that this survey showed declines in violence in some areas, and that data may have been affected by COVID lockdowns.
The next release based on Personal Safety survey data will be published later this year and for the first time will include economic and financial abuse by partners.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
