emotional abuse (48% of substantiations), neglect (24%), physical abuse
(16%) and sexual abuse (12%).86
140. Other data shows that:
•
thirteen per cent of Australians aged 18 years and over have
experienced physical and/or sexual abuse before the age of 1587
•
between 4% to 12% of girls and 1.4% to 7.5% of boys have experienced
penetrative sexual abuse before the age of 16, and between 14% to
26.8% of girls and 5.2% to 12% of boys have experienced nonpenetrative sexual abuse88
•
family violence resulted in 238 cases of filicide (children killed by their
parent) between 2002–201289
•
almost 896,700 men and 1.2 million women have witnessed violence
against their mother, and 380,000 men and 440,900 women witnessed
violence against their father before the age of 15. 90
141. Girls and young women are at heightened risk of physical and sexual
abuse. Those aged 15–19 years have the highest rates of reported sexual
abuse of any age and sex group, followed by girls aged 10–14 years.91 An
increasing number of girls aged 15–17 years are victims of violence
perpetrated by their partners.92
142. Children with disability are around three times more at risk of sexual
abuse than children in the overall population, and are also more likely
than other children to have experienced repeated incidents of sexual
abuse by the time they are 18 years old.93 They are also disproportionately
vulnerable to maltreatment in institutions.94
143. Other groups of children, such as those from CALD backgrounds, LGBTI
children, and children living in remote areas of Australia may also be
disproportionately affected, but data for these children is limited or nonexistent.95 There is also little information on the extent of sibling violence
against children.96
144. The NCC has highlighted the need for national, disaggregated data on
children’s experiences of family and domestic violence.97 She welcomed
the development of a National Data Collection and Reporting Framework
as part of the Second Action Plan in the National Plan to Reduce Violence
against Women and their Children, but identified a number of gaps in
national data, including limited data on age and vulnerable groups of
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