Extent of Sexual Assault in Australia and Ways to Overcome It

Running head: PROJECT PROPOSAL
Extent of sexual assault in Australia and ways to overcome it for establishing a safe community
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1PROJECT PROPOSAL
1. Project overview
The project will explore the incidences of sexual assault in Australia and will make an
attempt to find out ways to overcome this social challenge for establishing a safe community for
women and children as well as for the men. Sexual assault is a severe crime that occurs mostly to
the women and children in the communities. As stated by Graham et al. (2017), sexual assault
refers to the sexual behavior or contact occurring without any explicit consent of the victim.
Such assaults can occur through physical force, threats, or under the influence of drugs or
alcohol given to the victim. Rape, attempted rape, unwanted sexual contact, and forcing a victim
for performing sexual acts are some of the forms of sexual assault (Koss 2018). In Australia, the
occurrences of sexual assault are quite high and it is a concern for the society and also for the
government. According to Racgp.org.au (2018), 1 in every 5 women and 1 in every 20 men
experience sexual assault in their adult lives in Australia. In a survey conducted by ABS in 2018,
it has been found that 65,400 females were victim of sexual assault in 2017 and the number for
persons aged 18-24 years is 30,900 (Abs.gov.au 2019). Thus, in the Australian community,
sexual assault is a serious concern which needs to be treated in the most effective manner to
establish a safe living environment for the people.
Through this project, the researcher will explore the social factors that are affected by
sexual assault and based on the findings, recommendations will be made to overcome this social
challenge. The project proposal will commence with the background and justification for the
project, followed by its aims and objectives, project implementation plan, evaluation plan of the
project and expected outcomes, the expenses for the project and conclusion. This paper will
provide a plan for conducting a study on the impact of sexual assault on the communities of
Australia and how to mitigate the impacts.

2PROJECT PROPOSAL
2. Background and Justification of need for Project
Sexual assault is termed as a crime and it affects the welfare of a society. It can happen to
any individual of any age, race, gender, socio-economic background and at any time or place.
The assaulters can be strangers to the victim or can be someone from the friends, acquaintances
family and hence, in that case, sexual assault is termed as a part of domestic violence. The
perpetrators use different forms of pressure, such as, threats, blackmails, violence, manipulation,
coercion, or deception to commit the sexual assault on weak victims. The children and women
are the most vulnerable people against the sexual assault. Various studies have been undertaken
to explore different aspects of sexual assaults and their impact on the victims or on the society as
a whole. Government of all the countries have strict policies against the crime and the criminals,
yet the instances of reported sexual assault is quite concerning.
Taylor and Norma (2013) highlighted a serious concern in their paper. Many incidences
of sexual assault remain unreported. The victims cannot come of the social stigma to lodge a
complaint against the perpetrator due to many reasons, such as, family barriers, social barriers,
threats by the assaulters etc. The authors conducted their study on the Australian societies and
found that the family barriers often discourage the victims of sexual assault to come forward,
disclose and report the incidence. Through a qualitative study, the authors showed that the
victims of childhood sexual abuse were impeded by their families when they attempted to report
the sexual abuse. This trend is common across people belonging to culturally and linguistically
diverse backgrounds in Australia. It has been found that the families deny that sexual violence
exists, they are reluctant to report about the assaulters because either they are family or
acquaintances and they have the fear of being ostracized from the society for bringing shame on
the family and all these factors influence the victims and their families from reporting the

3PROJECT PROPOSAL
incidence of childhood sexual abuse. As the women and children often become victims of
domestic sexual abuse, sometimes, they are also discouraged to disclose the incidence as they
cannot produce any proof. The authors suggested that greater public and police intervention and
sensitivity is required to address this challenge and make the victims confident to come forward
and disclose the incidence of sexual abuse.
In the context of disclosure of sexual assault, Moors and Webber (2013) conducted their
study on the benefits of online self-disclosure system for the victims. The process of disclosure
and getting justice is quite painful and time consuming for the victims. Hence, the rate of formal
reporting is very low. The authors found that an online platform gives the survivors confidence
to disclose about their sexual abuses happened in their childhood or during puberty by a family
member or acquaintance. Many vulnerable women have come forward for supporting each other
by disclosing their stories on the online platform and the authors suggested that the counselors
and the welfare authorities must utilize these platforms to extend help to millions of victims
across the country.
Powell and Cauchi (2013) explored ways of investigating the incidences of sexual assault
by the Victoria Police (Australia). The police have established new teams for investigation who
would provide support to the victims while getting information from them and developed
services sites, where the victims would be treated with respect and dignity and feel comfortable
to report the sexual abuse. This way the police are getting more effective ad precise information
about the assaulters, which are helpful for them to arrest them. Thus, it can be inferred that the
victims require strong mental support from the family as well as from the community to come
forward and open up about their mishaps so that effective measures can be taken to remove the
vice from the society and establish a safe living environment.