Key points:
The unprecedented survey of violence and attitudes shows one third of boys believe "it's not a big deal to hit a girl". One in seven thought "it's OK to make a girl have sex with you if she was flirting".
The survey also shows one in four teenagers lives with violence at home, prompting calls for domestic violence education programs in schools.
The study, which reviewed data from the past seven years, including a survey of 5000 12 to 20-year-olds, found up to 350,000 girls aged between 12 and 20 – one in seven – had experienced sexual assault or rape.
Almost one third of girls in Year 10 had experienced unwanted sex.
The attitude towards violence against women is a bit surprising given how they've been running the "Australia Says No" campaigns for the last couple of years. I guess they've been going over the heads of a lot of teenage boys which is unfortunate. One in four teenages living with violence at home is a disturbing high amount as well, that figure might not reflect all parts of Australia but in any case it's a rather worrying result.
The number of women found to have been sexually assaulted or raped is truly disturbing though, frankly one in a hundred is despeciable enough but one in seven is sickening. As for the survey of Year 10 girls, one third being subjected to unwanted sex is astounding, though I guess it depends on what they mean by unwanted sex, ie whether they're simply talking rape or they're including sex that was reluctantly consented to but still unwanted.
Obviously it's something that needs to be stressed a little more in sex ed. It's all very well and good to preach abstinence or teach kids to use condoms and the dangers of unwanted pregnancy and STDs and all that, but it sounds like a lot of kids need to learn "no means no" and that violence against women isn't on.
