The Wire

Earlier in the show we heard about the role of rape in conflicts around the world. Closer to home, studies have found that approximately one in five women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 at some stage in their lives. But there are concerns that recent restructures of Federal and State government bodies dealing with women’s issues are hampering efforts to lower Australia’s high sexual violence statistics. NSW is a case in point… The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research estimates that 80% of women in Australia do not report sexual assault. In 2004 there were over 9,000 reports of indecent and sexual assault made to NSW Police. That means, by these estimates, there were 45,000 incidents of sexual and indecent assault committed on women and children in NSW last year. Over this same period, there was only 247 convictions of rapists by the NSW justice system, this is a conviction rate of less than 1%. Karen Willis is the Manager of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, a 24-hour telephone crisis intervention and counselling service for victims of sexual assault in NSW. Leonie Phillips asked her what the State Government is doing to address the disparity between reports of sexual assault and punishing the perpetrators.