Recent statistics - 2008

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Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2008

There were 19,781 recorded sexual assaults in Australia in 2007, with 94 victims per 100,000 of the population.
Reported sexual assaults have increased by 51% since 1995, at an average of 4% each year.
The number of recorded sexual assaults by month is typically highest from January to March and from August to November and lowest from April to July.
In 1996-97 and 2006-07, male offender rates were highest for the offences of other theft, assault, and unlawful entry with intent.
Rates were lowest in both years for robbery, sexual assault, and homicide.
Female offender rates were highest for other theft, fraud/deception, and assault in both 1996-97 and 2006-07, and lowest for robbery, homicide (fewer than two per 100,000), and sexual assault (fewer than one per 100,000).
In magistrates- courts, the proven offences most likely to incur custodial orders were unlawful entry with intent (UEWI) (54%), sexual assault (40%), and acts intended to cause injury (26%).
In higher courts, the proven offences most likely to receive a custodial sentence were homicide (90%), robbery (76%), and sexual assault (71%).
In children's courts, the majority of defendants found guilty of robbery, sexual assault, or UEWI received a custodial or community supervision or work order.
There were 2,631 (13%) male prisoners sentenced for sex offences in 2007.
There were 26 (3%) female prisoners sentenced for sex offences in 2007.

Download: Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2008 ( 3.5Mb )

Source: Australian Institute of Criminology

Trends in Violent Crime 2008

Recorded sexual assaults have increased steadily in the past 10 years by 20%..
For sexual assault the rate of increase was greater for children aged under 15 years, with increases almost double that of the older age group.
Since 1995, the rate of recorded sexual assault increased by 22%, from 72.5 per 100,000 people in 1995 to 88.4 in 2006 (Kendall's tau = 0.67, p<0.05).
The victimisation rates from the Australain Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Crime and Safety Survey (CSS) for sexual assault (all persons) in 2002 and 2005 were comparable, at 0.2% and 0.3% respectively.
Rates for females remained steady between 1998 and 2002 at 0.4%.
A small but not significant decline was observed in the ABS Women's Safety Survey (WSS) and ABS Personal Safety Survey (PSS) series, from 1.9% of women in 1996 to 1.6% in 2005.
Less than 1% of men (0.6%) in 2005 reported a recent sexual assault.
In the 10-year period between 1995 and 2005, the incidence of recorded sexual assault for children aged 0-14 years accounted for around 40% of all recorded sexual assaults.
Since the early 1990s, the increase in rates of sexual assault for this age group was the same as for people aged 15+ years (23% compared with 24%).
However, scrutiny of the period where much of the increase occurred (between 1999 and 2003) shows the increase among the 0 to 14-year-old age group was more than double that of people aged 15+ years (37% compared with 17%).
Rates of sexual assault increased for both males and females aged 0-14 years but more so among females (27% increase for females aged 0-14 years between 1996 and 2003, compared with 19% for males of the same age).
Most victims of sexual assault are female and few report the assault to police.
19% of women in 2005 said they had reported the most recent incident of sexual assault compared with 15% in 1996.
An increase was also observed in the percentage of women who reported any experience of sexual assault that occurred since the age of 15 (16% in 2005 up from 9% in 1996).
In contrast, the CSS finds the rate to have decreased, from 33% in 1998 to 20% in 2002.
Most assaults against women are perpetrated by a partner or family member.
Almost half (46%) of women physically assaulted since the age of 15 were assaulted by a current or ex-partner and 37% by a family member.

Download: Trends in Violent Crime 2008 ( 180Kb )

Source: Australian Institute of Criminology

This is not an exhaustive list of research in the area of family violence and sexual assault, merely a starting point. As the locations of web pages often change, many of these reports have been made available through this page to assist readers. Please note that these pdfs may not contain the latest version or any recent changes so it is recommended that researchers check the author's website for updates, suplements or amendments. All published details correct as at July 2009.

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