4530.0 - Crime Victimisation, Australia, 2014-15 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 17/02/2016   
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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 where the person knew the perpetrator had access to a gun
    • incidents where the person was threatened in their line of work.

Threatened assault excludes:
    • 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

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 2014-15? (Table 12)

In the 12 months prior to interview, 491,900 Australians aged 15 years and over experienced face-to-face threatened assault (2.6% of the population).

Persons who experienced face-to-face threatened assault were:

    • more likely to be male (2.9%) than female (2.4%)
    • more likely to be unmarried (3.6%) than married (2.0%)
    • more likely to be unemployed (7.3%) than employed (2.6%)
    • as likely to be living outside capital cities (3.0%) as in capital cities (2.5%)
    • more likely to be born in Australia (3.0%) than born overseas (1.8%).


REPORTING RATE (Table 15)

Around two in five (39%) persons who experienced face-to-face threatened assault reported their most recent incident to police.


EXPERIENCE OF MULTIPLE VICTIMISATION (Table 8)

Two out of five (41% or 202,600 victims) persons who experienced face-to-face threatened assault experienced a single incident in the 12 months prior to interview, while 19% (93,100 victims) experienced two incidents. A further 38% (188,600 victims) experienced three or more incidents of face-to-face threatened assault.

More than half (57%) of persons who experienced face-to-face threatened assault experienced more than one incident.


WHAT ELSE DO WE KNOW ABOUT FACE-TO-FACE THREATENED ASSAULT INCIDENTS? (Table 15)

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

In the most recent incident of face-to-face threatened assault:
    • The offender was more likely to be male (for 81% of victims) than female (11% of victims)
    • The offender was more likely to be known to the victim (62%) than to be a stranger (39%)
        • For both males and females, the offender was more likely to be someone they knew than a stranger (56% compared with 44% for males, and 69% compared with 31% for females)
    • The location of the incident was more likely to be the victim's home (28%) or work (27%) than any other location
        • Female victims were more likely than male victims to have experienced face-to-face threatened assault in their home (38% compared with 20%)
    • A weapon was not used in the most recent incident for the majority of victims (93%)
    • For one in five persons who experienced face-to-face threatened assault (22%), the main reason they did not report the incident to police was they considered it to be too trivial/unimportant.


NON FACE-TO-FACE THREATENED ASSAULT

Non face-to-face threatened assault includes any threat to inflict physical harm where the person experiencing the incident did not encounter the offender in person, such as via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media and the person being threatened believed the threat was able and likely to be carried out.


WHO EXPERIENCED NON FACE-TO-FACE THREATENED ASSAULT IN THE 12 MONTHS PRIOR TO INTERVIEW IN 2014-15? (Table 12)

In the 12 months prior to interview, 198,800 Australians aged 15 years and over experienced non face-to-face threatened assault (1.1% of the population).

Persons who experienced non face-to-face threatened assault were:
    • equally likely to be male (0.9%) as female (1.2%)
    • more likely to be unmarried (1.7%) than married (0.6%)
    • more likely to be unemployed (3.0%) than employed (1.0%)
    • more likely to be living outside capital cities (1.3%) than in capital cities (0.9%)
    • more likely to be born in Australia (1.3%) than born overseas (0.5%).


REPORTING RATE (Table 1)

Under a third (29%) of victims of non face-to-face threatened assault reported the most recent incident they experienced to the police.

ENDNOTE

Endnote 1 All comparisons discussed have been tested for statistical significance with a 95% level of confidence that there is a real difference in the two populations being tested. Only data with a relative standard error (RSE) of less than 25% are referred to in the text of this publication and these estimates are considered sufficiently reliable for general use. To determine whether there is a statistical difference between any other two estimates, significance testing should be undertaken. For further information, refer to the Technical Note.