Thursday | June 5, 2025
A groundbreaking national study has revealed that more than one in three men in Australia have reported using violence against an intimate partner, highlighting a disturbing rise in gender-based abuse despite more than a decade of national efforts aimed at prevention.
This alarming finding comes from a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study, Ten to Men, conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. The research, which began in 2013, follows the lives of approximately 24,000 Australian boys and men to understand various aspects of male health and wellbeing over time. One critical component of the study involves tracking rates of intimate partner violence (IPV), which encompasses emotional, physical, and sexual abuse directed at a romantic partner.
The latest results show a troubling increase in IPV among men over the past decade. When the survey was last carried out between 2013 and 2014, around 24%—just under one in four—men admitted to committing acts of violence against an intimate partner. In the most recent phase of the study, this figure has risen sharply to 35%, meaning more than one in three men are now perpetrators of such violence.
This represents not only a statistical increase, but a real-world impact involving tens of thousands of individuals. The researchers estimate that approximately 120,000 men are perpetrating intimate partner violence for the first time each year. These numbers paint a grim picture of a national crisis in a country that has long struggled to address and reduce gender-based violence effectively.
In response to the growing concern, the Australian government introduced a 10-year National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children in 2022. The plan prioritizes advancing gender equality as a core solution to tackling violence. However, despite such policy frameworks and public awareness campaigns, the issue continues to worsen.
According to the advocacy group Counting Dead Women, 100 women have been killed in Australia since January of the previous year—an appalling figure that underscores the deadly consequences of systemic violence. Public outrage has been mounting, with widespread protests demanding stronger, more urgent action from the government and institutions to end the epidemic of gendered violence.
Tarang Chawla, a prominent advocate against violence toward women and co-founder of Not One More Niki, emphasized the gravity of the new data. “The fact that one in three men in the study reported using intimate partner violence should shake every Australian,” he said. Chawla’s advocacy is deeply personal: his sister, Nikita Chawla, was murdered by her ex-partner in 2015.
“She was one of the women these numbers speak to,” Chawla said. “We’ve known this is a crisis, but now we have the data to back what victim-survivors, families and advocates have been saying for years: this is widespread, and it’s preventable.”
The report adds substantial weight to the call for systemic reforms, better education around healthy relationships and consent, and urgent government investment in prevention, support services, and cultural change.
Study shows father figures matter
Emotional abuse has emerged as the most prevalent form of intimate partner violence among Australian men, according to new findings from the Ten to Men longitudinal study, further exposing the complex and growing challenge of gender-based violence.
The landmark study, led by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, found that 32% of men surveyed in 2022 admitted to making an intimate partner “feel frightened or anxious”—a significant rise from 21% in 2013–2014. This form of emotional abuse, though less visible than physical violence, is deeply harmful and often part of a broader pattern of coercive control.
In addition to emotional abuse, approximately 9% of respondents acknowledged having “hit, slapped, kicked or otherwise physically hurt” an intimate partner—highlighting the continued presence of physical violence in relationships, and raising urgent questions about intervention and prevention.
The study also examined mental health factors linked to violent behavior. Men experiencing moderate to severe depressive symptoms were found to be 62% more likely to commit intimate partner violence compared to those without such symptoms. Likewise, men who reported experiencing suicidal thoughts, plans, or attempts were 47% more likely to have engaged in intimate partner violence. These findings highlight a clear and concerning link between poor mental health and perpetration of abuse, indicating that mental health support must be a key part of any strategy to prevent domestic violence.
Sean Martin, a clinical epidemiologist and the program lead for the study, emphasized that these findings not only reveal the scale of the problem but also provide critical insights for policymakers and practitioners aiming to reduce violence. While most Australian research in this area has rightly centered survivors’ experiences, Ten to Men adopts a different angle—by focusing on men as perpetrators, the study aims to uncover the root causes and risk factors that lead to violence, thereby helping to inform more effective prevention strategies.
One of the most significant contributions of the study is its investigation into the long-term influence of childhood experiences—especially father-son relationships—on adult behavior. In a first for Australian research, the study examined the role of paternal affection in shaping men’s future relationships. The results were striking: men who strongly agreed that they received affection from their father or a father figure during childhood were 48% less likely to commit intimate partner violence, compared to those who strongly disagreed.
Similarly, the data showed that men who had higher levels of social support in 2013–2014 were 26% less likely to begin using violence by 2022, reinforcing the importance of supportive communities and relationships in reducing harmful behaviors.
Martin noted that these findings underscore the value of investing in programs that promote men’s mental health, build healthy social networks, and support young fathers. Community-based interventions that foster emotional connection and model respectful relationships could play a pivotal role in breaking cycles of violence.
Professor Susan Heward-Belle, an expert in domestic and family violence from the University of Sydney (who was not involved in the study), said the findings reaffirm the critical role of fathers in shaping their children’s values and behaviors. “For a very long time, a lot of that emotional, social, nurturance-type work has been seen as women’s responsibilities within families,” she said. “But this research shows that fathers modeling respect for women, emotional intelligence, empathy, and compassion is essential.”
At the same time, Heward-Belle cautioned against overly simplistic interpretations. While positive parenting and emotional support are key protective factors, she noted that not all men who perpetrate violence come from neglectful or abusive families. “We also know that there are some men who perpetrate domestic and family violence who arguably have had good relationships with both parents,” she said. This, she argues, points to the need for deeper exploration into societal norms, gender roles, and feelings of entitlement or unresolved anger that can manifest as abuse.
The Ten to Men study offers a rare and valuable window into the behaviors and life trajectories of men across Australia. Its findings reinforce the urgency of a whole-of-society approach to ending violence—one that includes not only support for survivors but also prevention strategies that address root causes, challenge harmful norms, and support the emotional development of boys and men from an early age.