MEDIA RELEASE
16 February 2018	Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra time)

Nearly half a million Australians aged 15 years and over (454,900 or 2.4 per cent) have experienced one or more incidents of physical assault in the last 12 months, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Results from the 2016-17 Crime Victimisation survey found that men and women experienced physical assault at a similar rate: 2.4 per cent of men (228,700) and 2.3 per cent of women (226,900), with just over half reporting the most recent incident to police (52 per cent of men and 56 per cent of women). There was no change in the rate of victimisation or reporting to police since the survey was last run in 2015-16.

"One in seven men (14% or 31,500) who experienced physical assault felt that the incident was too trivial/unimportant to report to police. A similar number of women (13% or 30,100) who experienced physical assault felt that the incident was a personal matter and did not report" said William Milne of the ABS’ National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics.

The Crime Victimisation publication provides information about people’s experiences for a selected range of personal and household crimes, including the socio-demographic characteristics of people experiencing the offences, whether the most recent incident was reported to police, and other characteristics of the most recent incident.

Further information can be found in Crime Victimisation, Australia, 2016-17 (cat. no. 4530.0).

Media notes:

• Please ensure when reporting on ABS data that you attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.
• Media requests and interviews - contact the ABS Communications Section on 1300 175 070 (8.30am - 5pm Monday to Friday).