Hospitalised interpersonal violence and perpetrator coding, Australia 2002-05

This report describes episodes of hospitalised interpersonal violence in the 3 years (2002-03 to 2004-05) after the introduction of perpetrator coding in Australia in 2002. It also provides a technical demonstration of the type of analysis that is possible using perpetrator codes. During 2002-03 to 2004-05, 60,926 people were hospitalised and three-quarters of them were male. The most common reported type of interpersonal violence was Assault by bodily force, accounting for just over half of all cases (55%). Unspecified person was recorded as the perpetrator in 57% of cases aggregated over the 3 years.