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Summary Findings from the General Social Survey
SUMMARY FINDINGS FROM THE 2010 GENERAL SOCIAL SURVEY
CRIME VICTIMISATION
The 2010 ABS General Social Survey estimated that 1.7 million Australians aged 18 years and over were victims of physical or threatened violence and 1.3 million were victims of actual or attempted break-in, in the 12 months prior to the survey.1 In total, there were approximately 2.7 million victims of these offences, 327,300 of whom experienced both physical or threatened violence and actual or attempted break-in. With regard to personal stressors,2 an estimated 537,500 (3.2%) Australians felt that abuse or a violent crime had been a problem for themselves or someone close to them in the 12 months prior to the survey.
Victim of threatened or physical violence | Victim of actual or attempted break-in | Victim of physical or threatened violence and/or actual or attempted break-in | Self or someone close had a problem with abuse or violent crime |
'000 | % | '000 | % | '000 | % | '000 | % |
1,731.6 | 10.3 | 1,344.2 | 8.0 | 2,748.5 | 16.4 | 537.5 | 3.2 |
DISABILITY DUE TO A MENTAL HEALTH CONDITION
An estimated 1.1 million Australians aged 18 years and over in 2010 had a disability due to a mental health condition, which had lasted or was likely to last for six months or more.
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ENDNOTES
1. The General Social Survey (GSS) records higher prevalence rates of physical or threatened violence in the past 12 months (10.3%) than does the ABS Crime Victimisation Survey (CVS) (5.5%). The rates of such victimisation in the GSS are likely to include some cases of sexual violence. Sexual violence is significantly under-reported when explicitly collected in the CVS telephone survey, when compared to personal face-to-face interviews. The measure derived from the GSS is closer to level of violence measured in the ABS 2005 Personal Safety Survey. For more information please refer to ‘Appendix 1 – Data comparability with other ABS sources’ in ‘General Social Survey: Summary Results, Australia, 2010’ (cat. no. 4159.0).
2. Personal stressors include the following problems: serious illness, serious accident, death of a family member or close friend, mental illness, serious disability, divorce or separation, not able to get a job, involuntary loss of job, alcohol or drug related problems, witness to violence, abuse or violent crime, trouble with the police, gambling problem, discrimination because of ethnic or cultural background, and other problems.
3. Includes only persons whose mental health condition requires help or supervision in carrying our daily tasks or results in a restriction in everyday activities. For information about the prevalence of mental health problems in the population, please refer to the 2011-12 National Health Survey (cat. no. 4364.0.55.001) and the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (cat. no. 4326.0).
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