4524.0 - In Focus: Crime and Justice Statistics, July 2012  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 25/07/2012   
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Contents >> Exploring relationships between crime victimisation and social wellbeing >> Socio-Demographic Characteristics - Age and Sex

On this page:
Socio-demographic characteristics
Age and sex
Ability to raise emergency money
Experience of personal stressors
Frequency of contact with family and friends
Acceptance of other cultures
Perceptions of social disorder
Attendance at a community event
Ability to receive support in times of crisis
Conclusion

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

The socio-demographic characteristics of individuals can be an important mediating factor when examining the relationship between experiences of crime victimisation and social wellbeing outcomes. There was some variation between victims of the selected household crimes and victims of the selected personal crimes when comparing socio-demographic groups. Age, sex, household income and household composition breakdowns of victims of physical or threatened violence and/or actual or attempted break-in varied across some, but not all of the social wellbeing indicators, which is examined in more detail below. There is scope for further research into how experiences of victimisation of specific crime types relate to social wellbeing indicators and socio-demographic characteristics.

As patterns for the age and sex breakdowns mostly followed the general population, the analysis focused only on social wellbeing indicators where the findings diverged from the findings for the general population.


AGE AND SEX

Six social wellbeing indicators varied between the sexes and five varied between age groups for victims of actual or attempted break-in and physical or threatened violence. Both age and sex varied with the following indicators:
  • whether a victim could raise emergency money,
  • the personal stressors which victims had been exposed to, and
  • the frequency of contact with family and friends.

Sex alone varied for a further three indicators:
  • feelings of safety,
  • acceptance of different cultures, and
  • identifying social disorder issues.

Age alone varied for another two indicators:
  • attendance at community events, and
  • ability to get support in times of crisis.

Age and sex relationships with victimisation and social wellbeing varied across the different indicators. However, there were no discernible patterns between the sexes and age groups in terms of one cohort having better or worse outcomes than others. Most of the variations in these indicators for victims across the demographic groups followed trends for the general population, but usually with a greater magnitude for victims than people who had not been victims of the selected crimes.

Ability to raise emergency money

Male victims of actual or attempted break-in and/or physical or threatened violence were more likely to live in a household that could $2,000 if needed (78.4%) than females (69.5%). While this is consistent with the findings for males and females in the general population, male victims and female victims were still less likely to be able to raise emergency money than males and females that were not victims of the selected crimes. Victims of the selected crimes aged 65 years and over were more likely to be able to raise emergency money (89.0%) than victims aged 18 to 24 years (70.6%), which is consistent with the findings for these two age groups in the general population. However, only victims aged 25 to 34 years (74.7%), 35 to 44 years (65.8%) and 45 to 54 years (77.0%), were less likely to be able to raise emergency money than persons who were not victims of the selected crimes in the corresponding age groups (84.6%, 86.1%, and 85.6% respectively).

7. PROPORTION OF PERSONS IN A HOUSEHOLD ABLE TO RAISE EMERGENCY MONEY
by WHETHER A VICTIM OF SELECTED CRIMES and AGE


Experience of personal stressors

Victims of actual or attempted break-in and/or physical or threatened violence aged 65 years and over were less likely to experience a personal stressor in the 12 months prior to interview (65.7%) than victims aged 35 to 44 years (79.4%). The proportion of persons experiencing a personal stressor was slightly different across the age groups in the general population, however persons aged 65 years and over were still less likely to experience a personal stressor than the middle age groups. When comparing persons that did experience a selected crime with persons that did not experience a selected crime across all of the age groups, victims were more likely to have experienced a personal stressor in all age groups except 55 to 64 years.

8. PROPORTION OF PERSONS EXPERIENCING AT LEAST ONE
PERSONAL STRESSOR by WHETHER A VICTIM OF SELECTED CRIMES and AGE


Female victims of actual or attempted break-in and/or physical or threatened violence were more likely to report experiencing mental illness in the 12 months prior to interview (27.4%) than male victims (16.2%), whereas male victims were more likely to report experiencing trouble with the police (13.0%) than female victims (7.1%). In the general population, similar proportions of males and females experienced trouble with the police. The finding that a greater proportion of female victims reported experiencing mental illness than male victims was consistent with the finding for the general population. However, the proportion of female victims that reported experiencing mental illness (27.4%) was nearly double that of females that were not victims (12.4%).

Frequency of contact with family and friends

Female victims of actual or attempted break-in and/or physical or threatened violence were more likely to have everyday contact with family and friends (63.1%) than males (52.1%), which was consistent with the finding for the general population. However, both female and male victims of the selected offences were more likely to have contact everyday than females and males that were not victims of the selected offences (63.1% compared to 53.1% for females, and 52.1% compared to 43.2% for males). Victims of the selected crimes aged 18 to 24 years were more likely to have contact with their friends or family everyday (77.3%) than victims aged 65 years and over (34.1%), which was consistent with the finding in the general population. There were no statistically significant differences in the frequency of contact with family and friends between victims of the selected crimes and persons that did not experience the selected crimes across all the age groups in the general population.

9. PROPORTION OF PERSONS HAVING EVERYDAY CONTACT
WITH FAMILY OR FRIENDS by WHETHER A VICTIM OF SELECTED CRIMES and AGE


A larger proportion of male victims of threatened or physical violence and/or actual or attempted break-in felt safe or very safe than female victims in the following situations: at home alone during the day (91.7% and 83.4% respectively), at home alone after dark (88.1% and 67.2% respectively), and walking in the local area alone (61.2% and 21.7% respectively). This was consistent with the finding that men in the general population felt safer in the various situations than females. However, a larger proportion of victims of the selected crimes felt unsafe or very unsafe in all of the situations than persons that had not experienced a selected crime, across both genders.

Acceptance of other cultures

Male victims of actual or attempted break-in and/or physical or threatened violence were more likely to disagree that it is a good thing for a society to be made up of people from different cultures (12.6%) than female victims of the selected crimes (5.8%). While this was consistent with the finding for the general population, male victims of the selected crimes were also more likely to disagree than males that did not experience the selected crimes (12.6% compared to 6.9%).

Perceptions of social disorder

Female victims of actual or attempted break-in and/or physical or threatened violence were more likely to perceive a large social disorder problem in their local area (36.1%) than males victims (27.3%). This finding diverged from the finding in the general population, where a similar proportion of males and females perceived a large social disorder problem in their local area (20.2% and 20.6% respectively).

Attendance at a community event

Victims of actual or attempted break-in and/or physical or threatened violence aged 65 years and over were less likely to attend a community event (52.0%) than victims of the selected crimes in all the other age groups. This is consistent with the finding in the general population, however victims of the selected crimes aged 25-34 (77.5%) were more likely to attend a community event than persons that had not experienced a selected crime in the same age group (64.1%).

10. PROPORTION OF PERSONS ATTENDING AT LEAST ONE COMMUNITY
EVENT by WHETHER A VICTIM OF SELECTED CRIMES and AGE


Ability to receive support in times of crisis

Victims of actual or attempted break-in and/or physical or threatened violence aged 55 to 64 years were less likely to be able to receive support in times of crisis (88.5%) than victims aged 18-24 years (97.0%). This was not consistent with the finding for the general population, where there were no statistically significant differences between the age groups. Furthermore, there were also no statistically significant differences between victims and persons that were not victims of the selected crimes across all of the age groups.

Conclusion

While age and sex relationships with victimisation and social wellbeing varied across the different social wellbeing indicators there were no obvious patterns in the social wellbeing outcomes of the different sexes and age groups. Most of the variations in these indicators for victims of the selected crimes across the demographic groups were consistent with the findings for the general population, but usually with a greater magnitude for victims of the selected crimes than for people who had not been victims of the selected crimes. The only exception to this was for personal stressors and perception of social disorder.


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