Citation

Taft A, Wilson I, Laslett AM, Kuntsche S. Aust. N. Zeal. J. Public Health 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Public Health Association of Australia, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1753-6405.12943

PMID

31777149

Abstract

Violence against women is a significant public health issue – globally, one in three women are estimated to experience physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime. Australia is not immune; one in four Australian women report violence from an intimate partner since the age of 15. Some groups are burdened more than others, due to the intersection of systemic factors such as race, discrimination and social and economic disadvantage. Indigenous women are hospitalised for family violence‐related assaults at 32 times the rate of non‐Indigenous women. Victims experience significant negative physical, mental and reproductive health damage.

Decades of global evidence confirms that harmful use of alcohol increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence and sexual violence towards women. Although the exact role of alcohol in such violence is complex and contested, there is consensus that alcohol use, particularly heavy and binge drinking, contributes to the increased frequency and severity of violence. Alcohol use on its own is neither sufficient nor necessary for violence to occur. Many men drink heavily but do not abuse their partners, nor commit acts of sexual aggression ...

Language: en