ABS releases a foundation for improved family and domestic violence statistics

The Australian Bureau of Statistics today released a national data collection and reporting framework designed to improve the evidence base for family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia.

"Today's release is the foundation for a major improvement in family and domestic violence statistics," said William Milne from the ABS, "and it's the result of significant consultation with researchers, frontline contacts such as state and territory justice agencies, and supporting organisations like hospitals and accommodation providers."

"When the national data collection and reporting framework is in place, researchers will be able to better identify common characteristics of family and domestic violence incidents."

"They'll be able to create demographic and economic profiles, see family relationships, the types of violence and frequency of events, as well as look at resulting outcomes such as court proceedings, need for medical treatment or use of services such as housing assistance or counselling at the local, jurisdictional and national levels."

"As part of the next step in adopting this framework we'll now be working with a number of stakeholders so that information is collected - across agencies and jurisdictions - in a consistent and comparable manner for robust reporting and creating a more flexible evidence base," said Mr Milne.

The Foundation for a National Data Collection and Reporting Framework has been produced by the ABS in partnership with the Department of Social Services and is part of the Commonwealth’s National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (2010-2022) under the first action plan.

The ABS is committed to providing statistical leadership to create nationally consistent data and will work with the Commonwealth, state and territory governments, and the community to continue building the evidence base under the second action plan.

A copy of the Foundation for a National Data Collection and Reporting Framework for family, domestic and sexual violence (cat. no. 4529.0.00.003) is available for free download on the ABS website - www.abs.gov.au.