Partner violence: Over 16 percent of women in Austria affected

This is the result of a study by Statistics Austria that has just been published. Outside of intimate partnerships, more than one in four women (26.61 percent) have experienced some form of sexual and/or physical violence after the age of 15. The study “Gender-specific violence against women in Austria 2021” was commissioned by Eurostat and the Federal Chancellery. It is specifically about violence that women experience or that affects them disproportionately often, in and outside of partnerships, through stalking, sexual harassment at work and violence in childhood. The data is intended to provide results on the victims for the first time and represent an important addition to the official “Police Crime Statistics”, which records cases reported to the police, and to the “Court Crime Statistics”, which depicts convicted cases.

Detailed results from the survey: 8.70 percent of all women in Austria have been in an intimate relationship (since their 15th birthday) and/or have been raped by another person. 20.92 percent were affected by another form of sexual violence. 21.88 percent have experienced stalking. 26.59 percent of women who are or have been employed have experienced sexual harassment at work. 7.05 percent were affected by sexual violence (including rape) in childhood, i.e. girls under the age of 15, and 1.85 percent were victims of rape.

Regarding the prevalence of violence against women in general, the authors of the study state: “23.47 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 74 in Austria have experienced physical violence within or outside of intimate partnerships from the age of 15.” In numbers, this means: Of the more than 3,245,160 women between the ages of 18 and 74, 761,786 were affected at the time of the study. Almost every sixth woman was confronted with threats of violence (15.25 percent). Perpetrators were recorded for both forms – physical violence and the threat of it: 83.67 percent experienced these attacks by a male, 33 percent by a female. 67.42 percent were attacked or threatened by one or more people they knew, 42.80 percent by strangers (several incidents could be specified, note).

Seven percent victims of sexual violence

Physical violence in intimate relationships has been experienced by 14.07 percent of women who have been in an intimate relationship at least once – most commonly by pushing, shoving or hair-pulling (11.14 percent), followed by deliberately throwing stuff or slapping (8.23 percent).

Seven percent of women were victims of sexual violence in partnerships. A completed rape in an intimate partnership had to suffer 6.08 percent, while 2.18 percent were affected by an attempted rape. 36.92 percent experienced psychological violence from their partner. According to Statistics Austria, verbal humiliation and insults are the most common (28.55 percent), followed by “unreasonable or excessive jealousy” (19.43 percent).