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APPENDIX 1 INDIGENOUS VICTIMS OF CRIME, EXPERIMENTAL ESTIMATES


INTRODUCTION

This appendix presents experimental data for Indigenous victims for a selected range of recorded crimes for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Based on an ABS assessment of the quality, Indigenous data for recorded victims of crime for other jurisdictions are not of sufficient quality for national reporting. Queensland data is no longer available due to a reduction in the quality of their Indigenous data, with the introduction of a new IT system in 2007.

Further work is under way to improve the quality of the Indigenous data for crime statistics, including collecting data of sufficient quality for national reporting for all states and territories. Care should be taken regarding any analyses based on published experimental data. Comparisons between jurisdictions of assault and sexual assault data presented in this publication should also not be made as data are not comparable.

Data by Indigenous status in this appendix are categorised as ‘Indigenous’, ‘non-Indigenous’ or ‘not stated’. The ‘not stated’ category can represent a number of outcomes, for example the question may not have been asked, the person may have refused to answer, the question may not have been understood, or the person may have been unable to answer. For further detail relating to the application of the Standard Indigenous Question in the states and territories included in this appendix, see paragraphs 6-13 of the Explanatory Notes in Appendix 2.

For more information about the size of the Indigenous populations used to calculate the Indigenous victimisation rates see paragraphs 14-15 of the Appendix 2 Explanatory Notes. Care should be exercised in interpreting rates based on small numbers of victims.

Due to differing scope and counting rules, the experimental measures of victims of recorded crime, by Indigenous status, included in this publication may not be comparable to data published in other national and state/territory publications that include Indigenous status. Care should be taken in analysing and interpreting these experimental estimates. For more information see Explanatory Notes paragraphs 125-127.


INDIGENOUS VICTIMS IN NEW SOUTH WALES

There were 84,850 victims of assault in 2007, including 5,882 (7%) Indigenous victims. The assault victimisation rate for Indigenous persons was 3,960 victims per 100,000 Indigenous persons in New South Wales. By contrast, the non-Indigenous victimisation rate was 1,112 victims per 100,000 non-Indigenous persons.

Indigenous people comprised 6% (412 people) of the 6,787 victims of sexual assault in 2007. The Indigenous victimisation rate for sexual assault in New South Wales was 277 victims for every 100,000 Indigenous persons. The non-Indigenous victimisation rate was 85 victims per 100,000 non-Indigenous persons.

There were 22 people (5%) identified as Indigenous among the 449 victims of kidnapping/abduction in 2007, and 5 people were identified as Indigenous among the 94 victims of murder in New South Wales.


INDIGENOUS VICTIMS IN THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

Care should be taken in analysing and interpreting the experimental Indigenous crime victims data for the Australian Capital Territory because of the high rate of 'not stateds' for Indigenous status across the selected offence types (see table A3). For example, 30% of the total number of victims of assault were not identified as either Indigenous or non-Indigenous. Of the 2,165 people who were victims of assault in the Australian Capital Territory in 2007, 53 (2%) were recorded as Indigenous victims. The victimisation rate as reported for Indigenous persons in the Australian Capital Territory for assault was 1,180 victims per 100,000 Indigenous persons. For non-Indigenous persons, the victimisation rate for assault was 439 victims per 100,000 non-Indigenous persons.

Of the 259 sexual assault victims in 2007, 2% (6 people) were recorded as Indigenous.

A1 PERSON VICTIMS, Offence category by Indigenous status - New South Wales
		Indigenous	Non-Indigenous(a)	Not stated	Total
NUMBER
Homicide and related offences(b)
	Murder	5	82	7	94
	Attempted murder	3	57	-	60
	Manslaughter	-	9	-	9
	Total homicide and related offences	8	148	7	163
Assault		5 882	74 980	3 988	84 850
Sexual assault		412	5 718	657	6 787
Kidnapping/abduction(c)		22	410	17	449
Robbery(d)
	Armed robbery	16	2 725	43	2 784
	Unarmed robbery	42	5 024	130	5 196
	Total robbery	58	7 749	173	7 980
Blackmail/extortion(d)		-	69	-	69
PROPORTION (%)
Homicide and related offences(b)
	Murder	5.3	87.2	7.4	100.0
	Attempted murder	5.0	95.0	-	100.0
	Manslaughter	-	100.0	-	100.0
	Total homicide and related offences	4.9	90.8	4.3	100.0
Assault		6.9	88.4	4.7	100.0
Sexual assault		6.1	84.2	9.7	100.0
Kidnapping/abduction(c)		4.9	91.3	3.8	100.0
Robbery(d)
	Armed robbery	0.6	97.9	1.5	100.0
	Unarmed robbery	0.8	96.7	2.5	100.0
	Total robbery	0.7	97.1	2.2	100.0
Blackmail/extortion(d)		-	100.0	-	100.0
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) The victim has identified/been identified as neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander.
(b) The offence of driving causing death is excluded as it is no longer available at the national level as not all jurisdictions can supply this information.
(c) Counts may be inflated slightly (see Explanatory Notes paragraph 33).
(d) Refers to person victims only and does not include organisations as victims. Therefore totals are considerably lower than those in tables elsewhere in the publication.

A2 PERSON VICTIMISATION RATES, Offence category by Indigenous status - New South Wales
		Indigenous(a)	Non-Indigenous(b)(c)
Homicide and related offences(d)
	Murder	3.4	1.2
	Attempted murder	2.0	0.8
	Manslaughter	-	0.1
	Total homicide and related offences	5.4	2.2
Assault		3 959.8	1 112.4
Sexual assault		277.4	84.8
Kidnapping/abduction(e)		14.8	6.1
Robbery(f)
	Armed robbery	10.8	40.4
	Unarmed robbery	28.3	74.5
	Total robbery	39.0	115.0
Blackmail/extortion(f)		-	1.0
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Indigenous victims per 100,000 Indigenous persons. These rates were calculated using the Indigenous population projections (low series) for June 2007 from Experimental Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 30 June 1991 to 30 June 2009 (cat. no. 3238.0).
(b) The victim has identified/been identified as neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander.
(c) Non-Indigenous victims per 100,000 non-Indigenous persons. Calculations of rates for the non-Indigenous population are based on derived data. Indigenous population projections are subtracted from preliminary ERP data sourced from Population by Age and Sex, Australian States and Territories, June 2007 (cat. no. 3201.0).
(d) The offence of driving causing death is excluded as it is no longer available at the national level as not all jurisdictions can supply this information.
(e) Counts may be inflated slightly (see Explanatory Notes paragraph 33).
(f) Refers to person victims only and does not include organisations as victims. Therefore totals are considerably lower than those in tables elsewhere in the publication.

A3 PERSON VICTIMS, Offence category by Indigenous status - Australian Capital Territory
		Indigenous	Non-Indigenous(a)	Not stated	Total
NUMBER
Homicide and related offences(b)		-	5	-	5
Assault		53	1 472	640	2 165
Sexual assault		6	179	74	259
Kidnapping/abduction		-	-	4	4
Robbery(c)
	Armed robbery	3	75	15	93
	Unarmed robbery	-	108	53	161
	Total robbery	3	183	68	254
Blackmail/extortion(c)		-	-	-	-
PROPORTION (%)
Homicide and related offences(b)		-	100.0	-	100.0
Assault		2.4	68.0	29.6	100.0
Sexual assault		2.3	69.1	28.6	100.0
Kidnapping/abduction		-	-	100.0	100.0
Robbery(c)
	Armed robbery	3.2	80.6	16.1	100.0
	Unarmed robbery	-	67.1	32.9	100.0
	Total robbery	1.2	72.0	26.8	100.0
Blackmail/extortion(c)		-	-	-	-
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) The victim has identified/been identified as neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander.
(b) The offence of driving causing death is excluded as it is no longer available at the national level as not all jurisdictions can supply this information.
(c) Refers to person victims only and does not include organisations as victims. Therefore totals are considerably lower than those in tables elsewhere in the publication.

A4 PERSON VICTIMISATION RATE, Offence category by Indigenous status - Australian Capital Territory
		Indigenous(a)	Non-Indigenous(b)(c)
Homicide and related offences		-	1.5
Assault		1 180.4	438.9
Sexual assault		133.6	53.4
Kidnapping/abduction		-	-
Robbery(d)
	Armed robbery	66.8	22.4
	Unarmed robbery	-	32.2
	Total robbery	66.8	54.6
Blackmail/extortion(d)		0.0	0.0
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Indigenous victims per 100,000 Indigenous persons. These rates were calculated using the Indigenous population projections (low series) for June 2007 from Experimental Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 30 June 1991 to 30 June 2009 (cat. no. 3238.0).
(b) The victim has identified/been identified as neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander.
(c) Non-Indigenous victims per 100,000 non-Indigenous persons. Calculations of rates for the non-Indigenous population are based on derived data. Indigenous population projections are subtracted from preliminary ERP data sourced from Population by Age and Sex, Australian States and Territories, June 2007 (cat. no. 3201.0).
(d) Refers to person victims only and does not include organisations as victims. Therefore totals are considerably lower than those in tables elsewhere in the publication.