This study uses 34 years of data from the National Homicide Monitoring Program to describe the prevalence and characteristics of homicide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
Between 1 July 1989 and 30 June 2023, 476 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women were the victim of a homicide. Indigenous women experienced a homicide victimisation rate up to seven times the national average. Ninety-six percent (n=455) of the 473 homicide incidents involving an Indigenous woman were cleared by police. Almost all victims from cleared incidents were killed by someone they knew (97%, n=446), most by an Indigenous male intimate partner (66%, n=301).
Findings highlight the over-representation of Indigenous women as victims of homicide in Australia and provide baseline data to measure Closing the Gap targets to reduce homicide and other violent victimisation among these women.
References
URLs correct as at July 2024
ADFVDRN—see Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2024. Estimates and projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/estimates-and-projections-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians/latest-release
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2023a. Remoteness areas. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/standards/australian-statistical-geography-standard-asgs-edition-3/jul2021-jun2026/remoteness-structure/remoteness-areas
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2023b. National, state and territory population. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/sep-2023
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021a. ASGS Edition 3 (2021) – Correspondences. https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/asgs-edition-3-2021-correspondences
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021b. Standard for sex, gender, variations of sex characteristics and sexual orientation variables. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/standards/standard-sex-gender-variations-sex-characteristics-and-sexual-orientation-variables/latest-release
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2014. Indigenous status standard. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/standards/indigenous-status-standard/2014-version-15
Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) 2024. Updated answers to written questions on notice, 23 May 2024. Senate Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations women and children.
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/FirstNationswomen
children/Additional_Documents?docType=Answer%20to%20Question%20on%20Notice
Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) 2022. Answers to written questions on notice, 29 September 2022. Senate Inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations women and children. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/FirstNationswomen
children/Additional_Documents?docType=Answer%20to%20Question%20on%20Notice
Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network (ADFVDRN) & Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) 2022. Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network Data Report: Intimate partner violence homicides 2010–2018, 2nd ed. Research report 03/2022. Sydney: ANROWS
Bevan C, Lloyd J & McGlade H 2024. Missing, murdered and incarcerated Indigenous women in Australia: A literature review. Sydney: ANROWS. https://www.anrows.org.au/publication/missing-murdered-and-incarcerated-indigenous-women-in-australia-a-literature-review/
Boxall H, Doherty L, Lawler S, Franks C & Bricknell S 2022. The “Pathways to intimate partner homicide” project: Key stages and events in male-perpetrated intimate partner homicide in Australia. Special reports. Sydney: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS). https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/special/special-15
Buxton-Namisnyk E 2022. Domestic violence policing of First Nations women in Australia: ‘Settler’ frameworks, consequential harms and the promise of meaningful self-determination. British Journal of Criminology 62(6): 1323–1340. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azab103
Commonwealth of Australia 2023. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan 2023–2025. Department of Social Services, Australian Government. https://www.dss.gov.au/the-national-plan-to-end-violence-against-women-and-children/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-action-plan-2023-2025
Commonwealth of Australia 2022. National Plan to End Violence Against Women 2022–2032. Department of Social Services, Australian Government. https://www.dss.gov.au/ending-violence
Cripps K 2023. Indigenous women and intimate partner homicide in Australia: Confronting the impunity of policing failures. Current Issues in Criminal Justice 35(3): 293–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/10345329.2023.2205625
Cussen T & Bryant W 2015. Indigenous and non-Indigenous homicide in Australia. Research in Practice no. 37. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/rip/rip37
Miles H & Bricknell S 2024. Homicide in Australia 2022–23. Statistical Report no. 46. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. https://doi.org/10.52922/sr77420
Mouzos J 2001. Indigenous and non-Indigenous homicides in Australia: A comparative analysis. Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 210. Canberra: AIC. https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi210