Australian Bureau Of Statistics

Recording Of Sexual Assaults Reaches 8-Year High

Victor P Taffa

Number of sexual assault victims increased by 8 % across Australia from 2016, reaching an 8-year high in 2017, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

ABS Director of Crime and Justice Statistics William Milne said that there were almost 25,000 victims of sexual assault recorded by Police in 2017.

 

“This is the sixth consecutive annual increase in the number of victims recorded for this offence and the highest number recorded since the time series began in 2010.” Mr. Milne said.

More than 4 in 5 sexual assault victims were female (82 % or 20,556 victims).

“Recording of female victims of sexual assault increased by 9 % since last year, the largest annual increase since 2010.” Mr. Milne said.

There were 8,409 victims of family and domestic violence-related sexual assault recorded by Police, which accounted for a third (34 %) of all victims of sexual assault recorded nationally over the same period.

Since 2010, the number of victims has decreased nationally across a range of offences:

• Homicide, down 10 % to 414 victims
• Robbery, down 34 % to 9,599 victims
• Burglary, down 15 % to 176,153 victims