Young Australians and domestic violence

Abstract

Summarises the findings of young people's experiences of violence in their own relationships, their experience of witnessing adult domestic violence and their attitudes towards violence. The focus is the findings from a survey of 5,000 Australian young people, between 12 and 20 years old. The findings in relation to the effect of witnessing domestic violence on both attitudes and experiences give support to the "cycle of domestic violence" thesis: witnessing parental domestic violence is the strongest predictor of perpetration of violence in young people's own intimate relationships.