Recent statistics - 2009

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Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2010

The following figures on location of sexual assaults and age and gender of sexual assault victims have been aggregated from ABS data from New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Information for the remaining states and territories was not available for 2009.

• In 2009 in Australia, there were 18,807 recorded sexual assaults, with 67 victims per 100,000 population.
• In 2009, sexual assaults were least likely to occur in 'other residential' locations, while 67 percent occurred within private dwellings.
• Six percent of sexual assaults occurred on the street or footpath, while four percent occurred in retail locations and three percent on transport.
• In 2009, females experienced a consistently higher rate of sexual assault victimisation than males. This rate ranged from six per 100,000 population aged 65 years and over to 473 per 100,000 population aged 10 to 14 years.
• The male victimisation rate for sexual assault was highest at the lower end of the age spectrum. Ninety-four males were victimised per 100,000 population aged 10 to 14 years. The rate was lower for males aged zero to nine years, at 62 per 100,000 population.
• In 2009, the largest proportion of sexual offences involved an offender who was known to the victim. Specifically, one-third of sexual assaults occurred at the hands of a family member, which is to be expected given the high rates of sexual assault of children; while 42 percent of offenders were known to their victim in a capacity other than family.

Download: Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2010 ( 5.7Mb )

Source: The Australian Institute of Criminology

A Compendium of Sexual Assault Research 2009

This compendium provides a guide and introduction to the more recent research that the authors deem relevant and useful to our research sponsor and other policymakers interested in sexual assault issues. This report does not provide an exhaustive description of each of the included works, nor does it assess their quality; instead, it is intended as a compilation of the available research, with an emphasis on findings we deem to be most useful and relevant to sexual assault policymakers. We describe selected research that addresses different aspects of sexual assault, including victim and perpetrator risk factors, the role of alcohol consumption, contextual issues and prevention programs, disclosure of the assault, victim coping and recovery issues, health care programs, victim advocacy programs, and issues related to investigative and legal processes.

Download: A Compendium of Sexual Assault Research 2009

Source: The RAND Corporation

A Picture of Australia's Children 2009

Nationally, among children aged 0-12 years:

• Around 26,200 children were the subject of one or more substantiations of a notification received in 2007/08 - a rate of 7.4 per 1,000 children.
• The types of abuse reported were emotional abuse, reported in 39% of substantiations, neglect (28%), physical abuse (24%) and sexual abuse (9%).
• In the same year, around 7,500 children aged 0-14 years, or 187 in every 100,000 children, were the reported victims of sexual assault.
• Sexual assault rates were higher for children aged 10-14 years than for children aged 0-9 years (277and 142 per 100,000 children, respectively).
• Three-quarters of reported victims were girls.
• Rates of reported sexual assault were higher for older girls (aged 10-14 years) than for 0-9 year old girls (more than twice as high).
• Rates for boys were similar for both age groups.
• For boys, reported rates of physical assault were 367 per 100,000 and reported rates for sexual assault were 89 per 100,000.
• For girls, reported rates of physical assault were 244 per 100,000 and reported rates for sexual assault were 291 per 100,000.
• Children aged 0-14 years were less likely to have been reported victims of physical assault (309 in every 100,000) than those aged 15 years and over (920 in every 100,000).
• However, they were more likely to have been the reported victim of sexual assault (187 in every 100,000 compared with 68) (ABS 2004c).

There is limited evidence suggesting that child sexual assault is more prevalent in rural and remoteareas than in urban areas (Neame & Heenan 2004) and is associated with social disadvantage (Fleming et al. 1999). Information available from New South Wales and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) National Child Protection Data Collection indicate that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are over-represented among victims of physical and sexual assault.

However, surveys of young people in detention and under community based supervision in New South Wales (Kenny et al. 2006; Weatherburn et al. 1997) have found that:

• Between 30% and 40% of those in detention or under community-based supervision had experienced physical abuse.
• 11-14% had experienced sexual abuse; and
• Between one-third and one-half had experienced neglect.

Of the cases of child sexual assault recorded by police in New South Wales in 2004:

• 82% were female victims.
• Indigenous females under 16 years were over-represented among this group (469 per 100,000 compared with 192 for non-Indigenous females under 16) (Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Taskforce 2006).
• Indigenous children were overrepresented among those for whom a substantiated physical or sexual abuse notification was received during 2007-08.
• Indigenous children made up 20% and 16% of all children who were the subject of substantiations where sexual or physical abuse was the main type of abuse (AIHW 2009c).
• This is despite comprising only around 5% of all children aged 0-17 years.

Download: A Picture of Australia's Children 2009 ( 1.8Mb )

Source: The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

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 Sept 2011.

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Disclaimer Copyright Updated: 29 Sep 2011