According to the Australian National Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Counselling Service, more commonly known as the 1800 RESPECT helpline, the term sexual violence can be used to describe any sexual activity “that makes you feel scared or uncomfortable”.
Sexual violence encompasses sexual assault, sexual abuse, rape, and sexual harassment. The word violence here is used to refer to physical aggression, as well as emotional and psychological harm that can be inflicted in person, or through non-physical means, like online.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show one in five women in Australia has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
Senior Sergeant Monique Kelley leads a Victoria Police specialist team of detectives that investigate sexual crimes and work with victim survivors of sexual violence. She says sexual assault is defined as any intimate contact that is unwelcome.
“It's any unwarranted contact of a private part of the anatomy, where your free agreement, where consent is not being given. That can be a physical touch, it can be done through the media. It doesn't always have to be physical touch; there are a range of different ways that a sexual assault can be enacted on somebody else. The sharing of intimate images where there's been no consent to share them. People who will write stories that will be clear in in their storytelling on what they’re conveying could meet the threshold of what a sexual assault is."
