THE CULTURAL AND social bases for violence against women have been a focus of public attention for at least four decades. Women’s refuges were among the earliest manifestations of the feminist revival that commenced about that time, in the late 1960s. There is no doubt there has been progress, but there is also no doubt that much remains to be done.

According to the best figures available, derived from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Personal Safety Survey in 2005, one in three women experience at least one incident of physical violence and about one in five women experience sexual violence during their lifetime. Some women are more at risk than others. It is well established that Indigenous women are more likely than other women to be the victims of all kinds of violence, including domestic violence, sexual assaults and homicides. An Aboriginal woman is ten times more likely to die from assault than a non-Aboriginal woman, and thirty-five times more likely to be hospitalised for injuries caused by violence.