Research published today by University of Sydney researchers has found that both sexual assault and family violence-related assault involving children increased sharply across Australia from 2014 to 2024, with violence accelerating in the last 3–5 years.

Published today in JAMA Network Open, the study found that from 2014, rates of sexual violence against girls aged 0–17 rose steadily. For boys, rates rose sharply from 2021, with more than a 50 percent increase in just three years. For family violence-related assault, particularly sharp increases were seen from around 2020 among both boys and girls, with increases ranging from 8 to 20 percent per year through to 2024.

“We are at a crisis point. Sexual assault and family and domestic violence have increased over the decade, but what’s particularly concerning is that the steepest increases were in the last 3 to 5 years,” said lead author from the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre, Dr Lucy Grummitt.

The researchers say the increases may reflect a combination of factors, including rising income inequality, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and cost-of-living pressures, changing online gender norms, gaps in support services, and increased reporting of violence.

The research comes as, just last month, children’s safety advocacy group Save the Children launched an open letter with 200 experts calling for greater action to protect Australian children.

The researchers are now urgently calling on federal and state governments for greater investment in prevention and early detection, including implementing the recommendations of the Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches, which outlined a raft of approaches to prevent gender-based violence, including greater investment in national and state-based child protection systems.

They are also calling for increased, integrated surveillance across police, health and child protection systems, as well as nationally consistent legislation on corporal punishment, evidence-based parenting programs, school-based respectful relationships initiatives, and economic support for families.

“We need greater investment in prevention and early intervention so that we don’t see so many children suffering at the very extreme end of the spectrum,” said Dr Grummitt.

The researchers looked at rates of children’s exposure to violence over the past decade in Australia, using national police-recorded victimisation, hospitalisations for assault, and child protection data from three national agency databases: the Australian Bureau of Statistics Recorded Crime – Victims collection, and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Hospital Morbidity Database and Child Protection collection).

Increases in sexual assault over 2014–2024:

• Girls aged 0–9 years: increased by 2.8 percent per year (total of 32 percent over 10 years)

• Girls aged 10–17 years: increased by 4.2 percent per year (total of 51 percent over 10)

• Boys aged 10–17 years: increased by 4.8 percent per year (total of 60 percent over 10 years, with a particularly sharp rise of 15.7 percent per year from 2021)

• Boys aged 0–9 years: rates were stable overall, but increased sharply after 2021 (around 17 percent per year)

Increase in family and domestic violence (FDV)-related assault:

• Boys aged 0–9 years: increased by 4.6 percent per year (57 percent over 10 years)

• For girls aged 0–9 years, girls aged 10–17 years and boys aged 10–17 years, rates were relatively stable earlier in the study but rose sharply from about 2020, with increases ranging from approximately 8 percent to 20 percent per year.

What may be driving this increase?

The researchers point to several possible explanations:

• Rising income inequality, with sharp increases in 2021 in violence correlating with the highest income disparity in 20 years. Prior research has linked this with violence against children

• The COVID-19 pandemic, with lockdowns leading to increased time spent within households, reducing access to external support or opportunities to detect family and domestic violence. Subsequent cost-of-living pressures intensified in the post-pandemic period, correlating with increases; 

• Shifts in gender norms and online misogynistic cultures, with a resurgence in traditional gender hierarchies and beliefs in male dominance – established risk factors for violence against women and children.

• Service gaps and demands in resourcing. Many FDV services have reported rising demand without an increase in resourcing, and there are long delays in treatment for mental health and substance use. When families can’t access early support, treatment, or crisis intervention, violence may escalate or persist for longer, leading to it being picked up in the statutory systems from which we sourced our data.

• Possible increased reporting and willingness to report.

Hospital and child protection data point to different trends

The same period saw no significant change in hospitalisations for assault-related injuries among children, and no rise in substantiated child maltreatment cases through the child protection system – a divergence the researchers say raises important questions about what is driving the recorded increase.

“These differences in trends across administrative systems underscore the need for better data and cross-sector integration to understand what is happening with these different indicators of children’s exposure to violence, and to direct support and intervention to the right places.

“Our child maltreatment rates describe substantiated cases, meaning they have undergone an investigation by child protective services. One concern is that the declines we found reflect an issue with system capacity rather than a true decline in exposure.

“Data from the Australian Productivity Commission suggest that state and territory child protection agencies may not have the capacity to investigate all reports of abuse they receive, with the proportion of cases investigated over the past decade declining from half to one third.”