The study, which also identified significant region- and country-level differences, found Australia and New Zealand to be experiencing higher rates than most other high income countries, with more than a quarter of women (27.8 per cent in Australia and 28.8 per cent in New Zealand), one in six Australian men (16.9 per cent) and one in five NZ men (21.8 per cent) estimated to experience sexual violence before age 18.

Dr Jacqui Hendriks, a senior lecturer and research fellow in the Curtin School of Population Health at Curtin University, says the landmark study offers a powerful and sobering picture of sexual violence against children, both globally and in Australia.

She says that while there are methodological challenges in making direct international comparisons, the findings make it clear that sexual violence is an entrenched and ongoing issue in Australia.

“It is important to remember that these numbers reflect the lived experiences of thousands of Australians, many of whom carry the impacts of trauma across their lives, often in silence,” Hendriks shares.

“Sexual violence against children continues to happen now in homes, schools, institutions, and communities. It is a complex issue that is driven by a range of individual, social, cultural, and systemic factors.”

Hendriks says a coordinated, national and multisectoral response is urgently needed.

“This includes delivering primary prevention activities that are appropriately targeted for a range of audiences, strengthening the capacity of adults and professionals to identify and respond to abuse, and ensuring victim-survivors have access to timely, trauma-informed care,” she explains.

“Crucially, our response must be supported by serious, sustained investment and political will — across education, health, justice, and child protection systems.”

Dr Paul Read, a research supervisor at University of Technology Sydney, and expert on evidence-based transnational, cross-cultural and organisational attitude and behaviour change for sustainability and community cohesion, says the global dataset of sexual violence against children, defined in the dataset as below the age of 18, has never been attempted to this degree and paints a sobering picture for Australia.

“This is not a small number and places Australia among the world’s worst offenders, close to India, which is the world’s worst at 30.8  per cent of girls and 13.5 per cent of boys.”

Global datasets, Read says, help put in context the scope of the problem and highlight trends in data.

“Sadly, the authors find the data trends to be fairly stable, which means this is a stable cultural characteristic,” he says.

“For example, data trends show that Australian femicide is falling across years, though we still have a national crisis, whereas this data on child sexual assault shows no such trend.

Years ago another set of researchers found that Japan was one of the highest producers of child pornography in the 1990s but that Australia was one of the world’s highest consumers, Read says.

“This also accords with some of the worst crimes committed against children where Australians have been involved in child sex tourism. It also accords with the widespread predation on Australian children by religious orders.

He clarifies that the researchers have drawn on victim-level data, rather than reported to police, which means it’s more accurate but still likely an underestimate.

“For additional context, Australia’s predation on its own children is fully 47 per cent higher than the world average for girls.

“The fact that it’s only 14 per cent higher for boys means that it is very much gendered, reflecting a nation even more likely to see its girls as sexual prey,” he says.

“This is a national disgrace and should be investigated by the Albanese Government.”

For an excellent read, click here to read an extract from the Quarterly Essay from March by Jess Hill, titled ‘Losing It: Can we stop violence against women and children’. In the ground-breaking essay, Hill investigates the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children to find out what’s working and what’s not – and what we can do to turn things around.