Young women, renters, single mothers, and students are more likely to be the victims of sexual violence according to shocking new data. Two-point-two million women have experienced sexual violence since they were fifteen figures which advocates say are a national shame.
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00:00 For the past five years, Dani Villafana has been at the forefront of a painful and public
00:07 cause. At 14, she says she was sexually assaulted on a train in Sydney by a boy she knew as
00:14 she left a station just like this. The police didn't lay any charges.
00:20 When I went to the justice system, I was met with a system that really felt stacked against
00:26 me. When I was questioned by police, I was asked what I was wearing.
00:30 A new survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates there are 2.2 million
00:35 women like Dani Villafana across the country who have experienced sexual violence in their
00:40 lifetime. The Bureau found sexual violence rates were more prevalent among young women
00:45 between the ages of 18 and 24, single mothers and renters. The data also reveals the very
00:51 different ways men and women experience violence. While most men didn't know their perpetrators
00:56 and their assaults happened in public places, women faced violence at the hands of a partner,
01:01 most likely in their own home. It's really a national shame of ours that
01:06 these statistics are like this, but unfortunately to a lot of survivors, to a lot of people
01:10 who are working in this space, these statistics aren't surprising.
01:14 But while there's now plenty of data, one question continues to elude researchers.
01:19 We don't have the why, that's the next piece of the puzzle. That's why we put this information
01:23 out there, for researchers and policy makers to take that on and try and interpret what
01:28 this data means. A former Australian of the Year, Grace Tame,
01:31 believes part of that answer lies in child sexual abuse trauma, which leaves kids open
01:37 to being re-victimised later in life. What happens to us in childhood sets the stage
01:44 for the rest of our lives. We need to properly invest in prevention education.
01:51 Lessons for the future.
01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]