MEDIA RELEASE
22 July 2015	Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	81/2015

The number of robbery victims fell by 16 per cent in 2014, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

William Milne from the ABS, said that the Recorded Crime - Victims publication revealed that this was the fifth consecutive year in which reports of robbery had decreased.

"There were 9,886 victims of robbery recorded by police during 2014, a decrease of almost a third since 2010," Mr Milne said.

"There was almost an even split between armed and unarmed robbery in 2014, with the majority of robberies occurring in either a retail location, or on a street or footpath.

"Our data also showed five year lows in a number of other offence categories, including homicide, kidnapping and motor vehicle theft."

Sexual assault and blackmail or extortion were the only two offence categories to record increases between 2013 and 2014, with sexual assault increasing by three per cent to 20,677 victims nationally and blackmail and extortion increasing by four per cent to 527 victims nationally.

"In 2014, over 80 per cent of sexual assault victims were female, with the highest victimisation rate being for females aged between 15 and 19 years," Mr Milne said.

"Females in this age group were nearly seven times more likely to be a victim of sexual assault than the overall national average.

"For over two-thirds of sexual assault victims, the incident occurred in a residential location."

Males made up over 60 per cent of murder victims and over two-thirds of attempted murder victims. The majority of robbery and blackmail/extortion victims were also male.

Further information can be found in Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2014 (cat. no. 4510.0) available for free download from the ABS website (https://www.abs.gov.au).

Media notes:

• When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) as the source.
• This publication presents national crime statistics relating to victims of a selected range of personal and property offences that have been recorded by police during 2014. The 2014 publication marks the fifth year of a new time series following a break in series for the collection in the 2010 publication, and comparisons should not be made to data published prior to the 2010 publication.
• A victim for the purposes of this publication is defined by the type of offence committed. This can be a person, a premise, an organisation or a motor vehicle. While the definition includes non-person victims, victimisation rates are only presented for person victims.
• Media requests and interviews - contact the ABS Communications Section on 1300 175 070.