PERSONAL CRIME

SUMMARY

It is estimated that in the 12 months prior to interview in 2010–11, of the 17.7 million people aged 15 years and over in Australia:

• 486,500 (2.7%) were victims of at least one physical assault
• 594,300 (3.4%) were victims of at least one threatened assault, including face-to-face and non face-to-face threatened assaults
• 77,400 (0.4%) were victims of at least one robbery
• 54,900 (0.3%) were victims of at least one sexual assault (people aged 18 years and over only). (Table 1)

Nationally, there were no significant changes in the selected personal crime victimisation rates for 2010–11 compared with 2009–10.
The percentage of victims who had the most recent incident of personal crime they experienced reported to police varied depending on the type of crime:

• 51% for physical assault
• 34% for face-to-face threatened assault
• 32% for non face-to-face threatened assault
• 60% for robbery
• 31% for sexual assault. (Table 1)

PHYSICAL ASSAULT
During the 12 months prior to interview, there were an estimated 1.5 million incidents of physical assault in Australia (Table 1). The victimisation rate for South Australia decreased significantly from 3.3% in 2009–10 to 2.4% in 2010–11 (Table 2). There were no other significant changes for the remaining states and territories.


THREATENED ASSAULT
In the 12 months prior to interview, an estimated 2.4 million incidents of face-to-face threatened assault were experienced by 543,700 victims and approximately 1.0 million incidents of non face-to-face threatened assault were experienced by an estimated 170,700 victims. (Table 1)

CONTRIBUTION OF ALCOHOL OR ANY OTHER SUBSTANCE TO ASSAULT (PHYSICAL AND THREATENED)
The 2010–11 survey was the first time that victims of physical assault and face-to-face threatened assault were asked whether they believed alcohol or any other substance contributed to their most recent incident of assault (see Data Collection section of the Explanatory Notes for more information).

Nationally, 64% (278,000) of physical assault victims aged 18 years and over believed alcohol or any other substance contributed to their most recent incident (Table 7), while 57% (285,100) of face-to-face threatened assault victims believed the same (Table 8).

The majority of both male and female victims of physical assault believed that alcohol or any other substance contributed to their most recent incident (71% of males and 56% of females) (Table 7). This was also the case for face-to-face threatened assault, with 61% of male victims and 53% of female victims believing that alcohol or any other substance contributed (Table 8).

ROBBERY
During the 12 months prior to interview, there were an estimated 126,300 incidents of robbery. Both victimisation rates and reporting rates for robbery remained stable for 2010–11 compared with 2009–10, with no significant differences between these two periods both at a national and state and territory levels. (Table 1)