Women who experienced sexual assault where the incident was reported to police

1.3 Systems and institutions are culturally safe, accessible, inclusive, trauma-informed and centre lived experience.

Increased confidence and trust in the systems and institutions to respond to GBV and keep communities safe.

Proportion of women who experienced sexual assault by a male in the last 5 years where the incident  was reported to police.

An increase in the proportion of women who experienced sexual assault where the incident was reported to police may indicate more confidence and willingness to seek support for sexual assault. People may seek help and support from different sources following sexual assault, and these data should be considered alongside other data that looks at help-seeking from other sources.

2021–22

Number of women who experienced sexual assault by a male perpetrator in the last 5 years where the incident was reported to police by the respondent or by another person.

Data element: Person—police contacted about sexual assault
Data source: ABS PSS
Data source type: Survey

Number of women who experienced sexual assault by a male perpetrator in the last 5 years.

Data element: Person—experienced sexual assault by a male
Data source: ABS PSS
Data source type: Survey

This measure is the number of women who experienced sexual assault by a male perpetrator in the last 5 years where the police were contacted about the incident, expressed as a proportion of women who experienced sexual assault by a male perpetrator in the last 5 years.

100 x (Numerator/Denominator)

For each reference period, nationally, and by: 

• age
• disability status. 

The PSS defines sexual assault as an act of a sexual nature carried out against a person's will through the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion, including any attempts to do this. This includes rape, attempted rape, aggravated sexual assault (assault with a weapon), indecent assault, penetration by objects, forced sexual activity that did not end in penetration and attempts to force a person into sexual activity. Incidents so defined would be an offence under State and Territory criminal law.
Whether police were contacted was open to the respondent’s interpretation, and may include both contact that did and did not amount to a formal report.
If a respondent did not contact the police, but the police ‘happened to attend’, this was recorded as someone else contacting the police. If the incident occurred in a public place such as a shopping centre, and security was contacted, this was recorded as the police not being contacted. However, if security subsequently contacted the police then it was recorded as someone else contacting the police.
The proportion of people who reported sexual assault to the police can increase for a number of reasons. For example, an increase in media reporting on a particular issue can lead to an increase in people seeking support. 
Statistics will not be reported if they have a high relative standard error and are considered too unreliable to measure changes over time.

In the PSS, data collected about the most recent incident of violence are recorded separately for each type of violence and by sex of perpetrator.
For some population groups, numbers may be too small to be reported on separately. 
Where the RSE for numbers and estimates is between 25% and 50%, this will be indicated in the data visualisation and any accompanying data tables. Where the RSE is greater than 50%, the data will not be published.