MEDIA RELEASE
25 February 2015	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	25/2015

The number of people with a principal offence of Sexual assault and related offences increased by 19 per cent in 2013-14, according to figures released today by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

William Milne from the ABS, said today's Recorded Crime – Offenders publication revealed that the number of offenders with a principal offence of Sexual assault and related offences increased from 6,006 in 2012-13 to 7,175 in 2013-14.

"The majority of offenders in this category are male, accounting for 93 per cent, or 6,677 offenders," said Mr Milne. "The offender rate, which measures the number of offenders per 100,000 population, increased by 17 per cent."

The number of youths with a principal offence of Sexual assault and related offences also increased (by 36 per cent) from 1,369 in 2012-13 to 1,855 in 2013-14.

“The rise in youth Sexual assault and related offences was driven by an increase in Non-assaultive sexual offences of 48 per cent," said Mr Milne.

“While we did see an increase in the number of youths reported for Sexual assault and related offences, overall there was a four per cent decline in the number of youth offenders.”

During 2013-14, there were a total of 405,692 offenders. This was an increase of 14,508 offenders, or four per cent, from the previous year. The offender rate per 100,000 population increased by two per cent. Males accounted for 78 per cent (315,997) of the total, while the number of both male and female offenders increased by four per cent between 2012-13 and 2013-14.

After Sexual assault and related offences, the second largest increase was for Illicit drug offences, which rose by 7,059 offenders, or 11 per cent.

The number of people with a Homicide principal offence decreased by 11 per cent in 2013-14, from 755 to 675.

Further information can be found in Recorded Crime - Offenders, Australia 2013-14 (cat. no. 4519.0), available for free download from the ABS website https://www.abs.gov.au.


Media notes:

• Youth offenders are defined as offenders aged between 10 and 19 years old at the time the offence was recorded.
• When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.