This state of knowledge paper aims to examine the intersection between sexual assault and domestic violence. In order to do this, it highlights similarities and differences in the causes, consequences and lived experience of two forms of concurrent victimisation. Within this paper, concurrent victimisation is understood to include re-victimisation (when a woman, over her lifetime, experiences both sexual assault and domestic violence) and intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV). This paper examines the complexity of these experiences in order to articulate the common impacts of domestic violence and sexual assault and to critically examine how the phenomenon of re-victimisation and IPSV can shift the ways in which we think about, and provide services for, women affected by domestic violence and sexual assault.

Suggested citation:
Cox, P. (2015). Sexual assault and domestic violence in the context of co-occurrence and re-victimisation: State of knowledge paper (ANROWS Landscapes, 13/2015). Sydney, NSW: ANROWS.