National Community Attitudes towards Violence Against Women Survey 2009

VicHealth was commissioned by the Australian Government to undertake a National Survey on Community Attitudes to Violence Against Women.

VicHealth conducted the survey in partnership with the Social Research Centre and the Australian Institute of Criminology. The objectives of the survey were to:

• Gauge contemporary attitudes held about violence against women and track changes in attitudes since 1995;
• Track changes in Victorian’s attitudes since the conduct of the Victorian survey in 2006;
• Improve understanding of factors leading to the formation of contemporary community attitudes about violence against women;
• Improve understanding of strategies that are effective in fostering community attitudes to support women to live free from exposure to violence.

Over 10,000 men and women were asked to participate in the survey which was conducted from February to April 2009. There were also components that invited the participation of Indigenous Australians and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. The design of these components was supported by an Advisory Group to ensure the research approach was methodologically, ethically and culturally sound.

The survey establishes a contemporary baseline upon which to improve our understanding of factors leading to the formation of community attitudes on violence against women, and will help to inform the design and implementation of future prevention interventions that will address violence against women across our communities.

Read the summary and full technical reports