Key information gaps and development activities

High quality national data are crucial to understanding the extent, nature and impact of family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV). National data are often used to inform decision-making to improve outcomes for people who are, or may be, affected by violence.

The 2010–2022 National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children drove improvements in national data and reporting on FDSV in Australia. Concurrently, states and territories have worked to improve data collection on services provided in their jurisdictions.

The 2022–2032 National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children (the National Plan) and associated Outcomes Framework will be supported by a Performance Measurement Plan and a data development plan, which will drive the national FDSV data priorities over the next decade. For more information and related measures, see National Plan Outcomes. 

Our Ways – Strong Ways – Our Voices: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan to End Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence 2026–2036 is a standalone national plan that will guide actions towards ending violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children. This will be underpinned by a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework to measure progress toward agreed outcomes.

This topic page provides an overview of key national information gaps and development activities related to research and statistical uses – these will be further refined once the data priorities for the National Plans are confirmed.

National information gaps

No single national data source can provide all the information needed to report on and understand FDSV. Instead, FDSV data are collated from a range of sources to provide a national picture. For a description of the different types of FDSV data available, see How are national data used to answer questions about FDSV? and Data sources and technical notes.

While there have been substantial improvements in FDSV-related data and reporting over the past decade, several national gaps remain. In broad terms, these overarching national gaps include limited data on:

• Service pathways, impacts and outcomes for victim-survivors, perpetrators and families.
• Specialist services that support people who experience FDSV, for example, sexual violence and FDV services.
• FDSV experience or use in key mainstream services, such as hospital emergency departments or primary care.
• Select population groups, including people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Table 1 provides further detail on current topics where national data for statistical purposes are not available or limited.

In some cases, data are available at the state and territory level, however comparability across collections is limited as different definitions and methods are used to support different requirements, which can be related to legislation or service scope. Data availability and comparability can also vary across government, non-government and private (for profit) sectors.

Improving national data

A broad approach is required to improve national FDSV data overall, comprising various activities:

• Data development, such as:

  • new national data collections – collections may focus on a new topic, service area or population group, or aim to improve national data comparability across services or jurisdictions.
  • new data items in existing national collections – this may include adding new items to improve the identification of people experiencing FDSV or better understand their experiences and outcomes.

A key component of these activities is the development of clear definitions to support the collection of consistent and comparable information.

• Enhanced coverage or depth of existing national data collections – this may include extending the scope of existing administrative data collections to include a broader group of services or populations, or increasing the sample size and/or sampling strategy of existing surveys to support more in-depth analysis.
  
• Enhanced analysis of existing data – enhancing the range and complexity of data analysis may help to expand the evidence base (for example, for a specific population group or type of violence), or improve FDSV identification (for example, through specialised analysis of free text fields).

• Integration of existing data – data integration, or data linkage, means bringing together 2 or more sources of data which relate to the same individual, event, institution or place, while preserving privacy. Data integration has the potential to offer the greatest insights into pathways across a range of health and welfare services, and the impacts of FDSV on broader and long-term well-being, for example economic and housing outcomes. Integrated data can also improve the identification of people who have experienced FDSV across data sets. Integration of administrative and survey data, including longitudinal survey data, has particular benefits in understanding the reported experiences and service use of people who have experienced FDSV.

There are a range of considerations in improving data, including:

• Existing frameworks to guide data collection and reporting, such as the ABS (2014) National Data Collection and Reporting Framework for FDSV and the UN Women (2022) Improving the collection and use of administrative data on violence against women.
• Improvements should be appropriately targeted. For example, in seeking to improve FDSV identification in existing administrative data collections (through new data items, or enhanced analysis of existing items), consideration should be given to the level of relevance, and whether the benefit will outweigh the burden. In doing this, it is logical that improvements should be targeted to services that people who experience FDSV are more likely to come into contact with (for example, mental health care), or those that women particularly at risk of FDSV may visit (for example, perinatal services). 
• Safeguarding victim-survivors’ confidentiality, in the context of sharing data for research and statistical purposes.
• In the context of FDSV specifically, the expertise of people with lived experience should be considered, to ensure decisions about data improvements are undertaken in a sensitive and meaningful way. For example, the Australian Government is working with First Nations organisations and people to improve the access, relevance and governance arrangements relating to First Nations data (NIAA 2023).
• Development of new data standards (for example, for capturing new or better service response data) must be undertaken together with those responsible for funding and delivering services and supports. New data items or collections will generally need to be useful at the client, service, system and population outcome level, to justify investment.

A range of national data development activities are underway to expand and enhance FDSV data. Some examples of key national activities are provided in Table 2. Several new surveys have also been introduced in recent years and data from these are provided throughout this report as they become available.

More information

Family, domestic and sexual violence: National data landscape 2022