Alicia holds a black belt in martial arts and is a person who always thought they could defend themselves.
But in their first week of university, they said they experienced sexual harassment and unwanted kissing and touching on a social night out.
“I wasn’t sure what to do at the time because it was my first week and I knew him,” they said.
Initially, Alicia said they blamed themselves and thought it couldn’t have been harassment because of the circumstances.
“I quickly realised that it was and that I hadn’t consented,” they said.
The uni student said that incident was later used against them by others who felt emboldened to treat them in similar ways.
“I struggled greatly mental health-wise, just with all the changes that come with starting uni but on top of that, with this,” they explained.
Their experience is reflective of national figures released today, which shows the high prevalence of sexual and physical assault and harassment across the country, and reveal the groups most affected by these crimes.
Results suggest more than 35 per cent of young women face harassment
The Australian Bureau of Statistics interviewed 12,000 Australians about their experiences of sexual and physical violence and harassment to track national trends and estimate rates of assaults.
The survey results paint a picture of the very different ways men and women experience violence, and also show some groups of women and LGBTQI members experience violence at much higher rates than the general population.
When it came to sexual harassment the data showed age and gender mattered.
The ABS found more than 35 per cent of women aged between 18 and 24 had been sexually harassed across a 12-month period.
That figure progressively dropped for older age groups, with women 65 and older recording the lowest harassment rates at 3.2 per cent.
Of the 1.3 million women who said they had been sexually harassed across a 12-month period, nearly all said the perpetrator had been a male.
The report found 426,000 men said they had been sexually harassed, with the majority also harassed by a male.
Women and men experience violence very differently, survey shows
The ABS’s head of crime statistics Will Milne said the study revealed about 7 million Australians had experienced physical violence in their lifetime – for physical violence it was men who were at higher risk, with about 4 million men the victim of this type of crime.
“For men we found the perpetrator is three times more likely to be a male than a female and the violence most commonly occurred in a public location like a pub venue or out on the footpath,” he explained.
“It was also most likely perpetrated by a stranger.”
But the data revealed women were most at risk in the home.
“For women about 70 per cent of physical violence occurred in the home and the perpetrator was most commonly known to them,” Mr Milne said.
The data estimated more than 2.2 million Australian women had experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
Like physical assaults, these crimes were found to be “most commonly perpetrated by someone they knew, and most commonly an intimate partner”, Mr Milne said.
The ABS found about 70 per cent of those sexual assaults also occurred within the home.
Mr Milne said when the ABS drilled down into the data it showed some women and LGBTIQ groups experienced higher rates of sexual and physical violence as well as harassment.
“It was particularly evident in younger people so those aged 18-24, also those who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or used another term and we also found it in people who were studying or renting,” Mr Milne said.
Study to be used by government organisations and those campaigning for change
Mr Milne said the ABS’s data explained levels of violence across the country, but it couldn’t explain why they were occurring.
“That is the next piece of the puzzle and that is why we put the information out there – it is for researchers and policy makers to take it on and try and interpret what it means,” he said.
For Alicia, their story is consistent with the national data – they were 18, a member of the LGBTIQ community and struggling with housing at the time they were harassed.
“It is just scary that these are the sorts of things that I don’t really have control over people’s perceptions of me and yet somehow that makes me more vulnerable,” they said.
They are hoping this latest data leads to systemic and legislative changes that better support victims and hold perpetrators to account.
