Statistical Information

There are two main sources of data that provide estimates of the prevalence and incidence of sexual assault in Australia:

Reports made to State and Territory police; and
Victimisation surveys

Given that sexual assault remains one of the most underreported of all personal crimes, statistics compiled by police greatly underestimate the true incidence. Victimisation surveys provide a more reliable source of information for developing estimates on the levels of sexual assault because they ask people about their experiences regardless of whether they decide to report to the police. However, the extent to which even these surveys prompt victim/survivors to disclose sexual assault largely depends on the sensitivity of the approach taken to collecting the information.

The figures presented here are intended to provide the most up-to-date estimates of the levels of both reported and unreported sexual assaults that occur in Australia. Key findings in relation to the gender of victims and offenders are also provided. The following sections will lead you to the statistics you need.

1. Police statistics

Recorded crime - police statistics updated

2. Victimisation surveys

National Crime and Safety Surveys
Women's Safety Survey
Personal Safety Survey
International Violence Against Women Survey - figures for Australia

Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia 2007 (Police statistics)

This publication presents national crime statistics relating to victims of a selected range of offences that have been recorded by police. These statistics provide indicators of the level and nature of recorded crime victimisation in Australia and a basis for measuring change over time. As not all crimes are reported to or recorded by police, other data sources can assist in providing a more comprehensive view of crime levels in society.

Changes in this issue: The National Crime Statistics Unit (NCSU) has developed in collaboration with police agencies a National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS). This standard comprises a set of business rules and requirements to guide the recording and counting of criminal incidents by police. Some jurisdictions have implemented the NCRS part way through the 2007 calendar year. For further information see Explanatory Notes paragraphs 18-26.
Estimated Resident Population data used to calculate rates and indexes in this issue have changed. See Explanatory Notes paragraphs 115-117.

See ABS report: 4510.0 - Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2007

National Crime and Safety Surveys 2005
(includes reported and unreported incidents)

In 2005, there were an estimated 44,100 persons aged 18 years and over who were victims of at least one sexual assault in the 12 months prior to the survey; a victimisation prevalence rate of 0.3%. Approximately 72,000 incidents of sexual assault were experienced by these victims. For information specific to the quality and extent of sexual assault data collected in 2005, see paragraph 23 of the Explanatory Notes.

See ABS report: 4509.0 - Crime and Safety, Australia, Apr 2005

Women's Safety Survey 1995
(includes reported and unreported incidents)

The Women's Safety Survey was conducted in 1995 and published by the ABS in 1996. The survey relied on face-to-face interviews with a random sample of approximately 6,300 women in Australia, aged 18 years and over, who were living in a private dwelling in urban and rural Australia (non-English speaking women were interviewed over the phone with the assistance of an interpreter). The survey investigated women's experiences of physical and sexual violence in the last 12 months, and since the age of 15. It was estimated that, of women living in Australia aged 18 and over:

100,000 (1.5%) experienced an incident of sexual assault in the 12 months prior to the study.
99% of the perpetrators of sexual violence incidents experienced in the 12 months prior to the survey were men.
Women in the 18-24 year age bracket were more likely to be assaulted than women in other age-groups: 19% of women aged 18-24 had experienced sexual violence in the past 12 months, compared with 6.8% of women aged 35-44 and 1.2% of women aged 55 and over.
Only 15% of women who identified an incident of sexual assault in the 12 months prior to the survey reported to police.
An estimated 1.2 million women in Australia aged 18 and over had experienced sexual violence or its threat since the age of 15. More specifically, one in six adult women in Australia had experienced sexual assault since the age of 15 years.
45% of women sexually assaulted since the age of 15 had experienced more than one incident.
Sexual assaults occurring since the age of 15 were most commonly committed by a man known to the victim, and usually occurred in a home.
1 in 10 women who had ever been in a relationship disclosed an incident of sexual violence by an intimate partner.

Personal Safety Survey 2005

On August 10 2006 the ABS released the results of the first national Personal Safety Survey presenting information about women's and men's experiences of violence.

During the 12 months prior to the survey, 8.3% of Australians experienced some sort of violence.
Both men and women most often experience violence from male perpetrators.
Women are at more risk of violence in the home from men they know.
Men are most at risk in public spaces and licensed premises from men they don't know.
Women in Australia still experience high rates of sexual violence.
Since the age of 15, 32.5% of women have experienced inappropriate comments about their body or sex life, compared to 11.7% of men. 25.1% of women experienced unwanted sexual touching copared to 9.9% of men.
Since the age of 15, people were more likely to have experienced violence from a previous partner than from a current partner.
There was a small decrease in the overall incidence of sexual violence over the 12 months preceding the 1996 and 2005 surveys, but an increase over the course of women's life times.

4906.0 Personal Safety, Australia, 2005

Personal Safety Survey, Australia: User Guide - Essential reference for understanding data released from the 2005 Personal Safety Survey (PSS). Contains information about the background, design and content of the survey, the sample and estimation, collection and processing, and issues relating to quality. A complete list of output data items and associated material is also included to assist users.

4906.0.55.003 Personal Safety Survey, Australia: User Guide, 2005

Personal Safety Survey, Australia: State Tables - Contains a selection of tables from the publication 2005 Personal Safety Survey, Australia compiled for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

4906.0.55.004 Personal Safety Survey, Australia: State Tables, 2005

International Violence Against Women Survey: the Australian Component

A total of 6,677 women aged between 18 and 69 years participated in the telephone survey between December 2002 and June 2003, and provided information about their experiences of both physical and sexual violence. Women who participated were asked to recount their experiences of violence (including threats of violence) by current and former male partners, other males known to them including family members, acquaintances and friends, and their experiences of violence by strangers. They were also asked to recall instances of childhood violence and abuse.

As the International Violence Against Women Survey (IVAWS) was a telephone survey, participation was limited to women living in private residences who had telephones. This inevitably results in the experiences of particular groups of women being significantly under-represented or excluded entirely; in particular, women who are homeless, in prison, women living in rural or remote communities, Indigenous women, women with disabilities, and women who are not English-speaking. However, the survey did capture the experiences of 92 Indigenous women and 1122 women from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Experiences across women's lifetimes (IVAWS)

Over half of the women surveyed (57%) had experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence over their lifetime.
More than a third of women (34%) had experienced this violence from a former or current partner, although violence from a former partner was more common, and more likely to result in women being injured and feeling that their lives were in danger.
12% of women reported experiencing sexual violence by an intimate partner (current or former) over their lifetimes, including instances of attempted (3%) and completed (6%) forced intercourse (i.e. rape).
Women who had experienced sexual violence by their intimate partners were also likely to have been physically abused by them (73%).
18% of women reported being sexually abused before the age of 16: almost 2% of women identified parents (fathers in all but two cases) as the perpetrators, while a further 16% identified someone other than a parent. The results suggest that the risk of sexual violence in adulthood doubles for women who experience child abuse.
27% of women reported sexual violence by non-intimates such as other close family members, relatives, friends, colleagues and strangers (although a number of women reported violence from both intimate partners and others). 7% of these women reported attempted forced intercourse and 4 percent reported forced intercourse over their lifetime.
Only 1% of the women surveyed identified having been raped by a stranger.

Women's experiences in the 12 months prior to the survey (IVAWS)

10% of women had experienced at least one incident of physical and/or sexual violence in the past 12 months. They were more likely to report physical violence (8%) than sexual violence (4%).
With respect to sexual violence, Indigenous women reported three times as many incidents in the previous 12 months as compared with non-Indigenous women.
Non-English speaking background women reported experiencing roughly the same level of sexual violence in the past 12 months compared with English speaking women. However, English-speaking women reported higher levels of physical and sexual violence when asked about experiences across their lifetimes.
The findings suggest that particular groups of women are at higher risk:
- Indigenous women reported higher levels of both physical and sexual violence than was reported by non-Indigenous women.
- Younger women reported higher levels of both violence types compared to older women.
- Women who were not in a current relationship tended to be at greater risk of experiencing sexual and physical violence in the previous 12 months than women who were in a current relationship.

Disclosure and reporting to police (IVAWS)

Only 1 in 7 women (14%) who experienced violence from an intimate partner, and just over 1 in 6 women who experienced violence from someone else (non-partner), indicated that they had reported the most recent incident to police (16%).
Women who experienced physical or sexual violence from their intimate partners were more likely to report the most recent incident to police if the offender was a former (24%) rather than current husband/partner/boyfriend (8%).
The degree of satisfaction women reported in terms of their contact with police tended to accord with whether the charges were laid and whether the charges resulted in convictions in court. However, overall, a majority of women indicated that they were satisfied with the way the police had responded. Higher levels of dissatisfaction were reported by women who experienced violence from an intimate partner compared with women who experienced violence by a non-partner.
Overall, the most common reason why women did not contact police (whether intimate or non-intimate violence was experienced) is because they felt the incident was too minor in nature. However almost half of the women indicated that their reason for not reporting was because they preferred to deal with it themselves, preferred to keep the matter private, or out of shame or embarrassment. Indeed a quarter of women (25%) who identified intimate partner violence through the IVAWS had never before spoken to anyone else about the incident.