Australian attitudes to sexual violence could change as the government attempts to bridge a significant knowledge gap and end violence against women and children.
The Partners in Prevention of Sexual Violence project delivered by La Trobe University will receive $8.3 million from the federal government to evaluate programs that drive and enforce factors of sexual violence.
The university will work with service providers to create, implement and assess the effectiveness of prevention schemes.
There is a dearth of research on the issue, despite its prevalence in Australia, Reducing Gender-Based Violence Research Group fellow Leesa Hooker said.
"At the moment, we don't really have any evidence-based interventions to prevent sexual violence," Professor Hooker said.
"We expect that the outcomes of this project will be able to be used to change community attitudes and behaviours on an issue that has a devastating impact on far too many people."
La Trobe's program will run for three years and expressions of interest from sexual violence prevention program providers will close August 26.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth says the project will help build evidence on what does and doesn't work in sexual violence prevention.
"To create real change and end sexual violence in our country, we need to take action that is based on evidence," she said.
The project is part of the federal government's 10-year national plan to end violence against women and children.
About one in five women and one in 16 men across Australian have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
More than half of perpetrators were an intimate partner and 69 per cent of all incidents occurred in a home.
Throughout 2024, a series of high-profile domestic and family violence deaths have rocked Australia.
In May, Perth man Mark James Bombara killed Jennifer Petelczyc and her daughter Gretl while searching for his estranged wife.
A month earlier Daniel Billings allegedly murdered his ex-girlfriend Molly Ticehurst at her home in central-western NSW while out on bail.
And in July, a 28-year-old allegedly frustrated attempts to rescue his children from a burning Western Sydney home, resulting in the deaths of a six-year-old, a two-year-old and a five-month-old.
Between 2022 and 2023, the Australian Institute of Criminology recorded a 28 per cent rise in the number of women killed by an intimate partner compared to the previous year.
The government has allocated almost $1 billion to a program that will provide $5000 payments to people fleeing domestic violence.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
