2/3 ( 65.4%) of women who experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former cohabiting partner since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic said the violence had STARTED or ESCALATED in the three months prior to the May 2020 survey.
#DomesticAbuse anrows.org.au/media-releases…
1/3 women (33.1%) reporting physical or sexual violence said that this was the FIRST time their partner had been violent towards them in this way.
#DomesticViolence
#sexualviolence
1/5/women (19.9%) who experienced #coercivecontrol said that this was the FIRST time their partner had exercised multiple tactics of emotionally abusive, harassing or controlling behaviour within their relationship.
More than a third of women (36.9%) who experienced physical or sexual violence or coercive control said that, on at least one occasion, they wanted to seek advice or support but could not.
ANROWS CEO, Dr Heather Nancarrow pointed to the importance of providing alternatives to phone calls for women who need to seek help.
“ Women need to feel confident that there are other ways to seek help: and for this they need access to non-verbal communication methods, such as web chat. These options also have to be accessible for women with disability.”
Another immediate measure that ANROWS recommends is the expansion of COVID-19 Court Lists, such as those used by Family and Federal Circuit Courts , which allow urgent applications involving risk and family violence to be triaged, assessed and referred to a judge within 72 hours.
Source: anrows.org.au/media-releases…
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