• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past Releases

THREATENED ASSAULT ^{Endnote 1}

WHAT IS THREATENED ASSAULT?

For this survey, threatened assault is defined as a verbal and/or physical threat to inflict physical harm, where the person being threatened believed the threat was able and likely to be carried out. Threatened assault may occur face-to-face or via non face-to-face methods (such as email).

Threatened assault includes:

• any threat or attempt to strike the person which could cause pain
• situations where a gun was left in an obvious place (including fake or toy guns where the victim thought it was real) or if the person knew the perpetrator had access to a gun
• incidents where the person was threatened in their line of work.

• any incident of name calling or swearing which did not involve a physical threat
• threats that resulted in an actual assault (the latter are counted under the offence category of physical assault).

Face-to-face threatened assault includes any verbal and/or physical threat, made in person, to inflict physical harm where the person being threatened believed the threat was able and likely to be carried out.

It excludes any incident where the victim did not encounter the offender in person (e.g. via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media).

WHO EXPERIENCED FACE-TO-FACE THREATENED ASSAULT IN THE 12 MONTHS PRIOR TO INTERVIEW IN 2012-13? (see Data cube 3, Table 9)

In the 12 months prior to interview, an estimated 511,700 Australians aged 15 years and over experienced face-to-face threatened assault (2.8% of the population), which was lower than in 2011-12 (an estimated 596,000 Australians, or 3.3% of the population).

Males were more likely to be victims of this crime type (3.4% of males compared to 2.2% of females).

The face-to-face threatened assault victimisation rate for persons aged between 15-19 years and 20-24 years (both 4.7%) was higher than the rate for persons aged 35-44 years (2.9%), 45-54 years (2.8%), 55-64 years (1.8%) and 65 years and over (0.7%).

EXPERIENCE OF MULTIPLE VICTIMISATION (see Data Cube 2, Table 6)

An estimated 38.4% of all victims of face-to-face threatened assault (196,500 victims) experienced a single incident in the 12 months prior to interview, while a similar proportion (38.5%) experienced three or more incidents (197,200 victims).

Reporting rate (see Data cube 3, Table 12)

An estimated 37.2% of victims of face-to-face threatened assault (or 190,500 victims) did not report their most recent incident to police.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FACE-TO-FACE THREATENED ASSAULT INCIDENTS (see Data cube 3, Table 12)

This section discusses characteristics of the most recent incident for persons who were victims of face-to-face threatened assault in the 12 months prior to interview.

In the most recent incident of face-to-face threatened assault experienced by victims:

• The offender was more likely to be male (for 76.0% of victims, or 388,800 victims) than female (14.8%, or 75,600 victims)
• The offender was more likely to be known to the victim (58.8%, or 300,900 victims) than a stranger (41.2%, or 210,800 victims)
  • When the offender was known, the victim was less likely to be living with the offender at the time of the incident (8.1% of victims, or an estimated 41,300 victims) than not living with the offender (50.7% of victims, or an estimated 259,600 victims).
• The location was more likely to be the victim's home (25.4% of victims, or 130,000 victims) or work (25.1% of victims, or 128,600 victims) than any other location
• A weapon was not used in the most recent incident for the majority of victims (89.9%, or 460,100 victims)
• For nearly one in four victims (23.8%), the main reason they did not report the incident to police was because they considered the incident to be too trivial/unimportant.