Counting Dead Women: the ugly brutal statistic continues in July 2022

 

Counting Dead Women
IMAGE: Destroy The Joint

 

Violence against women and girls in Australia follows a distressingly predictable path in 2022.

By 20 July this year the number of women reported in the media as dying as the result of violent attack by another person stood at 25 dead.

That is roughly one woman being killed every 8 days.

This figure relies on media reports of such deaths, which often can mean a significant under reporting of the real number of women and girls who die at the hands of partners, former partners, family members, acquaintances or strangers over a given period.

Before going to a federal election this year the former Morrison Government drafted the fifth National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.

It's hard to imagine this particular draft plan when implemented making much difference to the violent related gender-based death toll, when the preceding four (beginning in 2010-2013) have failed to bring this century's femicide count down below that 'one-a-week' sticking point in Australia.

BACKGROUND

Violence against women and children in Australia is mostly perpetrated by men. Around four in five, family and domestic violence offenders are male. Men’s violence against women, including intimate, partner violence, is more prevalent, more often used repeatedly and more likely to lead to serious injury, disability or death. More than one in three Australians have experienced violence by a male perpetrator since the age of 15, compared to one in ten by a female perpetrator. While men can also be victim-survivors of family, sexual and domestic violence, men are more likely to experience violence from a stranger…..

Family, domestic and sexual violence also causes a huge economic impact with KPMG estimating this scourge costs Australia around $26 billion each year, 40 with victims and survivors bearing approximately 50 per cent of that cost.

Importantly, while sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence can occur in the context of domestic and family violence, it can also be perpetrated by other people known or unknown to the victim-survivor. In order to be effective, it is critical that our efforts to prevent, address, and respond to sexual violence recognise both the intersections and clear points of difference between domestic and family violence and sexual violence…..

Family, domestic and sexual violence also causes a huge economic impact with KPMG estimating this scourge costs Australia around $26 billion each year, with victims and survivors bearing approximately 50 per cent of that cost.

[Australian Government, (January 2022), “Draft National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032, pp. 11-12, 15]