Family, domestic and sexual violence data in Australia

Notes

1. Sexual violence includes both sexual assault and sexual threat as defined by the PSS. 
2. 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.
3. The PSS defines sexual threat as the threat of acts of a sexual nature that were made face-to-face where the person believed it was able to and likely to be carried out.

4. If a victim has experienced both assault or threat, or experienced violence by multiple perpetrators they will be counted once in the total only.

5. Prevalence of sexual violence reported by the PSS excludes incidents of sexual violence that occurred before the age of 15 - these are defined as sexual abuse. It also excludes sexual harassment, or broader and complex forms of sexual violence, such as technology-facilitated or image based abuse.

6. The PSS defines partner as a person the respondent lives with, or lived with at some point in a married or de facto relationship.
7. The PSS defines an intimate partner as a person who is either the Partner (current or previous); Boyfriend, Girlfriend or date; or Ex-boyfriend or Ex-girlfriend of the respondent.
8. For the purpose of this reporting, "other known person" is any perpetrator known to the victim (not a stranger) who is not an intimate partner. PSS relationships included here are: Father/Mother, Son/Daughter, Brother/Sister, Other relative or in-law, Friend or housemate, Acquaintance or neighbour, Employer/manager/supervisor, Co-worker, Teacher/tutor, Client/patient/customer, medical practitioner, Priest/Minister/Rabbi or other spiritual advisor, non-family carer, and other known person.
9. The PSS states that a disability or restrictive long-term health condition exists if a limitation, restriction, impairment, disease or disorder has lasted, or is expected to last for six months or more, which restricts everyday activities.
10. The PSS collects information from women and men aged 18 years and over.

11. Survey data, obtained from a sample of the population, is subject to sampling error. Where estimates are subject to a level of sampling error too high for general use, they are not included in visualisations, but are included in data tables, with caveats.

12. The observed value of a rate may vary due to chance even where there is no variation in the underlying value of the rate. The margin of error is the largest possible difference (due to sampling error) that could exist between the estimate and what would have been produced had all persons been included in the survey. Confidence intervals—constructed by taking the estimate plus or minus the MoE— can be used to provide an approximate indication of the true differences between rates. If the confidence intervals do not overlap, the difference can be said to be statistically significant. However, statistically significant differences are not necessarily the same as differences considered to be of practical importance. Small differences that have practical importance may be found to be not statistically significant as they are below the threshold the significance test can reliably detect.

13. Changes over time may indicate a change in the underlying rate of violence, a change in the propensity to report this violence, or both.

14. For more information see Methods, Glossary and Data sources.

Sources

ABS Personal Safety Survey 2016

Next expected: 2022