Introduction

Most people who use alcohol and other drugs do not report engaging in risky behaviours or criminal activity. However, alcohol and other drug use can be a risk factor for harms that impact other people and the community (‘community harms’), including driving under the influence and violence.

This page focuses on community harms related to alcohol and other drug use, such as criminal activity, physical and verbal abuse, and risky activities such as driving under the influence. For related content on other health and harms related to alcohol and other drug use and drug use among people in contact with the criminal justice system, see Health and harms.

Key findings

What data sources are available?

There are a range of data sources containing information about community harms related to alcohol and drug use. These include self-report surveys and administrative data sets (such as data routinely collected by law enforcement agencies). Each data set uses a different methodology, and the language may also differ across sources. 

For more information about each data source, see Technical notes.

How many people engage in risky or criminal behaviours when using alcohol and other drugs?

  • 15%

    In 2022–2023, almost 1 in 7 people who had recently consumed alcohol took part in at least one risky activity while under the influence of alcohol

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

  • People who drank at risky levels were more likely than people who did not to engage in risky behaviours or harmful activities

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

Risky behaviours

Consumption of alcohol and other drugs may influence people to engage in risky or criminal activities such as driving a motor vehicle, offensive conduct and verbal or physical violence. Data from the 2022–2023 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) found of people aged 14 and over:

  • Almost 1 in 7 (14.7%) people who had recently consumed alcohol took part in at least one risky activity while under the influence of alcohol in the previous 12 months (AIHW 2024, Table 4.63).
  • People who drank at risky levels were far more likely than people who did not to engage in risky behaviours or harmful activities (AIHW 2024, Table 4.62).
  • 3.9% of people who recently used illicit drugs created a disturbance, damaged, or stole goods (AIHW 2024, Table 5.46; Figure 1).

Figure 1: Activities done while under the influence of illicit drugs in the previous 12 months, people aged 14 and over who had recently (a) used illicit drugs, 2007 to 2022–2023


Sex

n.p. not published because of small numbers, confidentiality or other concerns about the quality of the data.

* Estimate has a relative standard error of 25% to 50% and should be used with caution.

** Estimate has a high level of sampling error (relative standard error of 51% to 90%), meaning that it is unsuitable for most uses.

# Statistically significant change between 2016 and 2022–2023.

(a) Illicit use of at least 1 of 17 classes of drugs in the previous 12 months in 2022–2023. The number and type of illicit drugs used has changed over time. 

Source: AIHW 2024 (Supplementary table 5.46)

For related content on the relationships between alcohol and other drug use, criminal activity and involvement with the criminal justice system in this report, see Experiences of alcohol and other drugs among people in contact with the criminal justice system.

Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs

  • 8%

    In 2022–2023, fewer than 1 in 10 people who had recently consumed alcohol reported driving under the influence of alcohol

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

  • Amphetamines and cannabis are the most common drugs detected in roadside drug driving tests

    Source: Illicit Drug Data Report

Driving a motor vehicle whilst under the influence of alcohol and other drugs significantly increases the risk of road accidents. Alcohol was involved in 150 of the total 1,186 fatal crashes in 2024, a 25% decrease from 2014 when there were 200 fatal crashes involving alcohol (Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts 2025, Table 26). In this reporting, alcohol involvement includes all crashes where at least one vehicle operator tested over the legal limit for alcohol.

Data from the general population indicate that most people who had recently consumed alcohol or illicit drugs do not drive under the influence. In the 2022–2023 NDSHS:

  • Fewer than 1 in 10 (7.6%) people who had recently consumed alcohol reported driving a motor vehicle (AIHW 2024, Table 4.63).
  • Around 1 in 7 people (13.6%) who had recently used any illicit drug reporting driving under the influence of drugs in the previous 12 months (AIHW 2024, Table 5.46; Figure 1).

Driving under the influence of alcohol and other drugs is considerably more common among people who regularly use stimulants or inject drugs, as reported via the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS) and Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS). In 2025:

  • 4 in 5 (80%) people who regularly use stimulants reported having driven a vehicle in the last 6 months. Of these:
    • 44% reported recently driving a vehicle within 3 hours of consuming illicit or non-prescribed drugs, down from 50% in 2024. 
    • One in five (20%) reported driving while over the perceived legal limit of alcohol, down from 29% in 2024 (Sutherland et al 2025a).
  • Nearly 2 in 5 (37%) people who regularly inject drugs reported having driven a vehicle in the past 6 months. Of these:
    • Over three-quarters (77%) reported driving within 3 hours of consuming an illicit or non-prescribed drug, stable relative to 2024
    • 9% reported driving while over the perceived legal limit for alcohol, stable relative to 2024 (Sutherland et al 2025b).

Drug driving data is also available from law enforcement sources. The Illicit Drug Data Report (IDDR) includes drug driving data provided by police services across Australia (excluding the Northern Territory), as indicated via positive results following forensic analysis. Of the 42,608 drug driving tests conducted in 2020–21:

  • amphetamine/methylamphetamine was the most commonly detected drug (53%), followed by cannabis (40%) and MDMA (3%)
  • males accounted for the majority of positive drug driving tests (76%)
  • people aged 30–39 returned the greatest proportion of positive drug driving tests (32%) (ACIC 2023).

What are the associations between alcohol and other drug use and violence?

Physical and verbal abuse

  • 21%

    More than 1 in 5 people had been a victim of an alcohol-related incident in 2022–2023, including physical and verbal abuse

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

  • 1 in 10 people had been a victim of an illicit drug-related incident in 2022–2023

    Source: National Drug Strategy Household Survey

The 2022–2023 NDSHS showed that:

  • More than 1 in 5 (21%) people in Australia aged 14 and over had been a victim of an alcohol-related incident, although this proportion has declined from 30% in 2007 (AIHW 2024, Table 4.54; Figure 2).
  • 1 in 10 people (10.1%) had been a victim of an illicit drug-related incident, remaining stable since 2019 (10.5%) (AIHW 2024, Table 5.37).
  • Verbal abuse was the most frequently reported illicit drug-related incident overall (7.5%) which was highest among people in their 40s (9.2%) and lowest among those aged over 60 (5.6%) (AIHW 2024, Table 5.39).
  • *1.3% of people who recently used illicit drugs physically abused someone (*estimate has a relative standard error between 25% and 50% and should be interpreted with caution; AIHW 2024, Table 5.46; Figure 1). 

Figure 2: Victims of alcohol or illicit drug-related incidents in the previous 12 months, people aged 14 and over, 2007 to 2022–2023

This figure shows that the proportion of people who were victims of any alcohol-related incident has declined from 2007 to 2022–2023.

This figure shows that the proportion of people who were victims of any alcohol-related incident has declined from 2007 to 2022–2023.

An increasing proportion of women are affected by other people’s alcohol use:

  • Women were more likely to have experienced verbal abuse in 2022–2023 (17.6%) compared with 2019 (15.9%), while the rates for men fell from 19.6% to 17.6%. 
  • Women were more likely to have experienced physical abuse from someone under the influence of alcohol in 2022–2023 (5.3%) compared with 2019 (4.0%). For men the proportion remained stable and was 5.2% in 2022–2023.
  • Women were more likely to have been put in fear in 2022–2023 compared with 2019, and in 2022–2023 they were 1.6 times as likely as men to have been put in fear in the previous 12 months. This is the highest disparity seen since the question was introduced in 2007 (AIHW 2024d, Table 4.54).

In addition, the national Crime Victimisation survey indicates that many people who have experienced actual or threatened assault believe alcohol or other drugs contributed to the incident. In 2023–24, almost 1 in 2 people who experienced physical or face-to-face threatened assault in the last 12 months believed alcohol or another substance contributed to the most recent incident (both 48%) (ABS 2025, Table 6C):

  • A higher proportion of men (54%) than women (40%) believed that alcohol or another substance contributed to the most recent incident of physical assault.
  • A higher proportion of men (53%) than women (42%) believed that alcohol or another substance contributed to the most recent incident of face-to-face threatened assault (ABS 2025).

Family, domestic and sexual violence

  • Almost 1 in 2

    women who had experienced male perpetrated sexual assault in the past 10 years believed alcohol or another drug contributed to the most recent assault

    Source: Personal Safety, Australia

Incidents of family, domestic or sexual violence often occur in the context of alcohol and other drug use. For example, the 2021–22 Personal Safety, Australia report showed that almost half (47%) of all women who have experienced male perpetrated sexual assault in the past 10 years reported that they believed alcohol or another substance contributed to their most recent experience of male perpetrated sexual assault (ABS 2023, Table 4.1).

Data from the 2022–2023 NDSHS show growing numbers of women are experiencing harm from someone under the influence of alcohol. Females were more likely than males to report that the person responsible for the harms (‘perpetrator’) was a current or former spouse or partner, while males were more likely to report that the perpetrator was a stranger (AIHW 2024, Table 4.61). 

A recent Australian study found that domestic and family violence incidents were significantly more likely than other violent incidents to involve drugs (Coomber et al. 2019). Respondents who reported the use of illicit drugs in the previous 12 months were 3 times as likely to report experiencing violence over the same period and the frequency of violent incidents was 6 times higher. The risk of injury doubled when respondents reported that the most recent incident involved drug use (Coomber et al. 2019).

Data from the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program showed that people in police detention who reported dependence on methamphetamine or cannabis reported higher rates of domestic violence:

  • Sixty-one percent of people in police detention who reported being dependent on methamphetamine reported recent violence towards a current or former intimate partner. This is substantially higher than the proportions reported for those who said they had used methamphetamine but were not dependent (37%) and those who said they had not used methamphetamine (32%). 
  • Similarly, people in police detention who reported being dependent on cannabis self-reported higher rates of domestic violence (58% compared with 41% for those who had used cannabis but were not dependent and 25% for those who had not used cannabis) (Morgan and Gannoni 2020).

Homicide

  • Almost 1 in 5

    homicide offenders had consumed alcohol prior to the homicide incident in 2020–21

    Source: Homicide in Australia

The National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) collects data on homicide incidents in Australia. The NHMP draws information on the use of alcohol and other drugs by homicide victims and offenders from different sources: data on victims is based on toxicology, and data on offenders is based on self-report or assessment by the police (Miles and Bricknell 2024). 

The latest Homicide in Australia report did not include data relating to alcohol and/or drug use, due to missing data. Data from the 2022–23 report showed that there were 232 homicide incidents recorded in Australia, an increase from 218 in 2021–22. In 2022–23, an alcohol-related argument was an apparent motive in 9 incidents of homicide while a dispute over drugs was an apparent motive for 7 incidents of homicide (Miles and Bricknell 2024). 

The 2022–23 report did not include information on use of alcohol and other drugs by victims and offenders, but data from the previous report showed that in 2020–21: 

  • victims had consumed alcohol in almost one-quarter (23%) of homicide incidents, down from 25% in 2019–20
  • victims had used illicit drugs (including non-therapeutic levels of pharmaceutical drugs) in almost one-quarter (23%) of incidents down from 28% in 2019–20
  • offenders were recorded as having consumed alcohol in almost 1 in 5 (18%) homicide incidents, similar to 17% in 2019–20
  • offenders had used illicit drugs in almost 1 in 10 (9%) incidents, similar to 2019–20 (10% of incidents) (Bricknell 2023, Serpell et al. 2022).

The relationship between the victim and offender was known in 154 homicide incidents in 2020–21. Of these incidents, 5 were motivated by an alcohol-related argument and 6 were related to drugs (Bricknell 2023). 

Where do I go for more information?