NOTES
ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION
This publication presents first results from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) redesigned national Crime Victimisation Survey, conducted from July 2008 to June 2009 using the ABS Multipurpose Household Survey (MPHS). The publication includes data about victims for a selected range of personal and household offences, whether victims reported these incidents to police, characteristics of victims and characteristics of their most recent incident, and people's perceptions of safety and problems in their neighbourhood. Unless otherwise specified, differences between data items noted in the Summary of Findings are statistically significant. See the Technical Note (paragraph 12) for further details.
ABOUT THIS SURVEY
The survey forms part of a commitment by the ABS to present a comprehensive view of crime and the criminal justice system in Australia. The survey focuses on selected categories of more serious crime and high volume crimes. The MPHS is conducted throughout Australia as a supplement to the Labour Force Survey and interviews are conducted predominantly by telephone. One randomly selected person per household, aged 15 years or over, was asked about whether they or their household experienced selected personal or household crimes, providing information about incidents that occurred over a 12-month period before the date of interview during 2008-09. Sexual assault data were collected from people aged 18 years or over. For more information about the survey refer to the Explanatory Notes.
CHANGES TO THE ABS CRIME VICTIMISATION SURVEY
Outcomes from a review of this collection in 2006-07 have resulted in a major redesign of the ABS national Crime Victimisation Survey. Previously, the ABS conducted a national Crime and Safety Survey on a three-yearly basis; latest results from this survey were published in Crime and Safety, Australia, 2005 (cat. no. 4509.0). The redeveloped Crime Victimisation Survey has resulted in improved methodology, more timely headline indicators about the level of crime victimisation in Australia and flexibility to cater for new and emerging areas of crime. As a result of changes to methodology there is a break in series and data is not comparable to previous data about crime victimisation in the above publication. For more information see Explanatory Notes paragraphs 35-41.
COMPARISONS TO OTHER ABS CRIME SOURCES
The ABS publishes data relating to crime from a range of different sources, and differing measurement methodologies can produce different estimates. As different methods are used, caution should be exercised in making any direct comparisons to these sources. For more information see Explanatory Notes paragraph 42.
ROUNDING
As estimates have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.
INQUIRIES
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Soula Macfarlane on Melbourne (03) 9615 7374.
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