Rates of selected personal and household crimes in Australia were lower in 2017-18 compared to 2008-09, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
“Results from the tenth annual Crime Victimisation Survey showed a national decrease of 23 per cent for physical assault, 33 per cent for threatened assault, and 50 per cent for robbery over the last decade, although the rate of sexual assault has remained steady,” said William Milne of the ABS’ National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics.
“All household crimes types captured in the survey also show a decrease in 2017-18 compared to a decade ago,” added Mr Milne.
Alcohol and other substances continue to play a role in incidents of assault, although this has decreased in recent years.
“The survey showed that the proportion of adults who believed that alcohol or any other substance contributed to their most recent incident of physical assault fell from 64 per cent in 2010-11 to 55 per cent in 2017-18,” said Mr Milne. “For face-to-face threatened assault, the proportion fell from 57 per cent to 49 per cent over the same time period.”
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.