• Ludo McFerran
• Australian Domestic & Family Violence Clearinghouse

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06 December 2011DOMESTIC violence is directly linked with performance and productivity at thousands of Australian workplaces according to this survey.

Domestic or family violence is an abuse of power by a partner, ex-partner or family member. It takes many forms including intimidation, control, isolation and emotional, physical, sexual, fi nancial or spiritual abuse.

Domestic violence can also occur between people in an intimate relationship who do not live together,between people in same-sex relationships, between carers and the person in their care and between people in kinship relationships.

Domestic violence tends to increase over time, becoming more serious and more frequent. Domestic
violence harms both the victim, and others including children who witness the abuse. Most forms of
domestic violence are a criminal offence. While domestic violence laws and defi nitions vary across
jurisdictions, each state and territory has laws providing for domestic violence protection orders.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics, Personal Safety Survey 2005 found that 15% of Australian women had
experienced physical or sexual violence from a previous partner and 2.1% from a current partner since
the age of fi fteen. In contrast, 4.9% of Australian men had experienced violence from a previous partner
and 0.9% from a current partner since the age of fi fteen (ABS 2006 p. 11).

In the Australian component of the International Violence Against Women Survey, over a third of women
(34%) who had a current or former intimate partner reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence
since the age of sixteen (Mouzos & Makkai 2004 p.44).

In addition, 37-40% reported experiencing at least one type of controlling behaviour, most commonly
name calling, insults, put downs or behaviour that made the woman feel bad (Mouzos & Makkai 2004
p.48).