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SAFETY AND JUSTICE GLOSSARY


Please note: the safety and justice data contained in this publication presents a mix of survey and administrative data. For example, Assault data uses survey data, while Sexual Assault data uses administrative data. These two data sources are not comparable, since the Sexual Assault figures exclude crime that is not reported to police. Users are advised not to compare between different data sources.


Abduction, harassment and other offences against the person

Acts intended to threaten or harass, or acts that unlawfully deprive another person of their freedom of movement, that are against that person's will or against the will of any parent, guardian or other person having lawful custody or care of that person. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Abduction and kidnapping, Deprivation of liberty/false imprisonment and Harassment and threatening behaviour.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

People who identify or are identified as being of Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander origin. May also include people who identified as both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin.

Acts intended to cause injury

Acts, excluding attempted murder and those resulting in death, which are intended to cause non-fatal injury or harm to another person and where there is no sexual or acquisitive element. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Assault and Other acts intended to cause injury.

Adult prisoner

An adult prisoner is a person who is aged 18 years and over in all states and territories except Queensland, where an adult prisoner is a person aged 17 years and over.

Age standardisation

Age standardisation is a statistical method that adjusts crude rates to account for age differences between study populations. Age standardisation enables better comparisons between different populations. In the context of such a comparison, the key variable of interest is the ratio of rates, rather than the age standardised rates alone.

Aggregate sentence

The longest period that the convicted prisoner may be detained for the current sentenced offences in the current episode. This is also the maximum sentence length for a convicted prisoner for the current episode.

Attempted murder

The attempted unlawful killing of another person where there is either the intent to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm with the knowledge that it was probable that death or grievous bodily harm would occur (reckless indifference to life), not resulting in death.

Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC)

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC), 2011 (cat. no. 1234.0) is a hierarchical classification system developed by the ABS for use in the collection and publication of crime and justice statistics. It provides a classificatory framework for the comparison of statistics on offences across Australia. ANZSOC 2011 replaced the second edition of the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC, 2008). It incorporated a title change from ASOC to ANZSOC and corrected some minor typographical errors only. The revised title ANZSOC has been developed for use within Australia and New Zealand.

Blackmail/ extortion

The unlawful demanding with intent to gain money, property or any other benefit from, or with intent to cause detriment to, another person accompanied by the use of coercive measures, to be carried out at some point in the future if the demand is not met. This may also include the use and/ or threatened use of face-to-face force or violence, provided there is a threat of continued violence if the demand is not met. Coercive measures include, but are not limited to: the threat of force or violence; the misuse of authority; criminal prosecution; the destruction of a person's reputation or social standing; or the destruction of a person's property.

Dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons

Dangerous or negligent acts which, though not intended to cause harm, actually or potentially result in injury to oneself or another person.

Estimated Resident Population (ERP)

The official measure of the population of Australia is based on the concept of residence. It refers to all people, regardless of nationality or citizenship, who usually live in Australia, with the exception of foreign diplomatic personnel and their families. It includes usual residents who are overseas for less than 12 months. It excludes overseas visitors who are in Australia for less than 12 months.

Face-to-face threatened physical assault

See Physical threat, threatened physical assault.

Fraud, deception, and related offences

Offences involving a dishonest act or omission carried out with the purpose of deceiving to obtain a benefit. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Obtain benefit by deception, Forgery and counterfeiting, Deceptive business/government practices and Other fraud and deception offences.

Homicide and related offences

The unlawful killing, attempted unlawful killing or conspiracy to kill another person. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Murder, Attempted murder and Manslaughter and driving causing death.

Illicit drug offence

The possession, sale, dealing or trafficking, importing or exporting, manufacture or cultivation of drugs or other substances prohibited under legislation. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Import or export illicit drugs, Deal or traffic in illicit drugs, Manufacture or cultivate illicit drugs, Possess and/or use illicit drugs and Other illicit drug offences.

Imprisonment rates

Imprisonment rates are expressed as the number of persons in prison per 100,000 adult population. Imprisonment rates enable comparison of different prisoner populations based on age, sex, Indigenous status, country of birth, and state and territory.

Kidnapping/ abduction

The unlawful confinement of a person against that person's will, or against the will of any parent, guardian or other person having lawful custody or care of that person.

Manslaughter and driving causing death

The unlawful killing of another person while deprived of the power of self-control by provocation, or under circumstances amounting to diminished responsibility or without intent to kill, as a result of a careless, reckless, negligent, unlawful or dangerous act. This offence category is Homicide and related offences.

Mean

The sum of the value of each observation in a distribution divided by the number of observations. Known as the arithmetic average.

Median

The middle value of a set of values when the values are sorted in order.

Miscellaneous offences

Offences involving the breach of statutory rules or regulations governing activities that are prima facie legal (i.e. legal on first appearance), where such offences are not explicitly dealt with under any other Division of ANZSOC, including: defamation, libel and privacy offences; public health and safety offences; commercial/industry/financial regulations; and other miscellaneous offences.

Most serious offence

For sentenced prisoners, the most serious offence is the offence for which the prisoner has received the longest sentence in the current episode for a single count of the offence, except for Tasmania.

Murder

The unlawful killing of another person where there is either the intent to kill; the intent to cause grievous bodily harm, with the knowledge that it was probable that death or grievous bodily harm would occur (reckless indifference to life); or without intent to kill in the course of committing a crime (felony murder).

National Offence Index (NOI)

The National Offence Index is a ranking of the ANZSOC codes from most serious to least serious, and is used to determine a principal offence where a person is proceeded against for more than one offence type during the reference period. Offences are allocated a ranking and the highest ranking offence (i.e. the offence closest to 1) is selected as the principal offence. For further details, see the Explanatory Notes in Prisoners in Australia, 2017 (cat no. 4517.0). For further detail refer to National Offence Index (cat. no. 1234.0.55.001).

National Prisoner Census

An annual census of all persons in the legal custody of adult corrective services in all states and territories as at midnight 30 June. Statistics in Prisoners in Australia, 2017 (cat no. 4517.0) are derived from information on each prisoner collected by the ABS from administrative records held by corrective services agencies within each state and territory.

Non-Indigenous

Refers to people who don't identify themselves, or were not identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander origin.

Offence

Any act or omission by a person, persons, organisation, or organisations, for which a penalty could be imposed by the Australian legal system.

Offences against justice procedures

An act or omission prejudicial to the effective carrying out of justice procedures other than justice orders. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Offences against justice procedures, government security and government operations.

Offenders of crime

A person aged 10 years or over who is proceeded against and recorded by police for one or more criminal offences. An offender is only counted once during the reference period irrespective of the number of offences committed or the number of separate occasions that police proceeded against that offender.

Offender rates

Offender rates are expressed as the number of offenders per 100,000 of the relevant Estimated Resident Population (ERP).

Partner violence

Any incident of sexual assault, sexual threat, physical assault or physical threat by a current and/or previous partner. Partner violence does not include violence by a (ex-) boyfriend/girlfriend or date, which refers to a person that the respondent dated, or was intimately involved with, but did not live with.

Physical assault

An act of physical force or violence committed by an offender/s against another person. Examples of physical force or violence include being beaten, pushed, grabbed, shoved, slapped, hit with an open hand or fist, kicked, bitten, choked, stabbed, shot, burnt, being hit with something such as a bat or being dragged or hit deliberately by a vehicle. Includes assault that occurred while the person was at work. Excludes incidents that occurred during the course of play on a sporting field or organised sport, verbal abuse, incidents where the person did not encounter the offender face-to-face, and incidents of sexual assault or threatened sexual assault which also involved physical assault.

Physical threat, threatened physical assault

A verbal, written and/or physical threat to inflict physical harm where the person being threatened believed the threat was likely and able to be carried out. Threatened assault may occur face-to-face or via non face-to-face methods (such as SMS, email or over the phone). Includes any threat or attempt to strike the person which could cause pain; situations where a gun or other weapon was left in an obvious place (including fake or toy guns/weapons where the threatened person thought it was real) or if the person knew the perpetrator had access to a gun (including toy guns, starter pistol, etc.). Also includes incidents where the person was threatened in their line of work. Excludes any incident of name calling or swearing which did not involve a physical threat, and threats that resulted in an actual assault.

Personal Safety, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0) includes threats made face-to-face and Crime Victimisation, Australia, 2016–17 (cat. no. 4530.0) includes both face-to-face and non face-to-face threatened assault.

Face- to- face threatened assault excludes any incident where the person being threatened did not encounter the offender in person (e.g. threats made via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media). Non face-to-face threatened assault may occur via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media.

Physical violence

The occurrence, attempt or threat of physical assault experienced by a person since the age of 15. For further information, refer to the Violence Prevalence and Violence - Most Recent Incident pages in the Personal Safety Survey, Australia: User Guide, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0.55.003).

Principal offence

The offence category, based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC), 2011 (cat. no. 1234.0), which describes the most serious offence type for which a person has been proceeded against by police during the reference period. The principal offence is determined by the rankings in the NOI (see National Offence Index).

Prisoner

A person held in custody. For the purposes of this domain, prisoners are those whose confinement is the responsibility of a corrective services agency.

Prohibited and regulated weapons and explosives offences

Offences involving prohibited or regulated weapons and explosives. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Prohibited weapons/explosives offences and Regulated weapons/explosives offences.

Property damage and environmental pollution

The wilful and unlawful destruction, damage or defacement of public or private property, or the pollution of property or a definable entity held in common by the community. 'Destruction' means altering the property in any way so as to render it imperfect or inoperative. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Property damage and Environmental pollution.

Public order offence

Offences involving personal conduct that involves, or may lead to, a breach of public order or decency, or that is indicative of criminal intent, or that is otherwise regulated or prohibited on moral or ethical grounds. In general these offences do not involve a specific victim or victims; however some offences, such as offensive language and offensive behaviour, may be directed towards a single victim.

Reporting rate

The total number of persons/households that reported the most recent incident of a crime type to police, expressed as a percentage of the total number of persons/households that experienced the crime type. Includes incidents where the person who experienced the crime did not report the incident themselves, but were aware of another person who did.

Robbery

Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2017 (cat. no. 4510.0) defines robbery as the unlawful taking of property, with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property, from the immediate possession, control, custody or care of a person or organisation, accompanied by the use, and/or threatened use, of immediate force or violence. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Armed Robbery and Unarmed Robbery.

Robbery, extortion and other related offences

Recorded Crime – Offenders, 2016–17 (cat. no 4519.0) defines robbery, extortion and related offences as acts intended to unlawfully gain money, property or other thing of value from, or to cause detriment to, another person by using the threat of force or any other coercive measure. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Robbery and Blackmail and extortion.

Sentenced prisoners

Sentenced prisoners are those persons who have received a term of imprisonment from a court. This includes offenders who have been given an indeterminate sentence or custodial order, for example persons detained under the 'Governor's/ HM's Pleasure' and 'Forensic Patients', or those who have received a life sentence. Prior to 2017, periodic detainees in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory were also included.

Sexual assault

An act of a sexual nature carried out against a person's will, through the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion. It includes attempts to force a person into sexual activity.

The attempts are not separately identified in the Personal Safety, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0). It includes rape, attempted rape, aggravated sexual assault (assault with a weapon), indecent assault, penetration by objects and 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.
Sexual assault excludes incidents of violence that occurred before the age of 15 - these are defined as sexual abuse. It also excludes unwanted sexual touching - this is defined as sexual harassment. If a person experienced sexual assault and sexual threat in the same incident, this was counted once only as a sexual assault. If an incident of sexual assault also involved physical assault or threats, this was counted once only as a sexual assault.

Recorded Crime - Victims, 2017 (cat. no. 4510.0) and Recorded Crime – Offenders, 2016–17 (cat. no 4519.0) defines sexual assault as physical contact, or intent of contact, of a sexual nature directed toward another person where that person does not give consent, gives consent as a result of intimidation or deception, or consent is proscribed (i.e. the person is legally deemed incapable of giving consent because of youth, temporary/permanent (mental) incapacity or there is a familial relationship).

Sexual assault and related offences

Acts, or intent of acts, of a sexual nature against another person, which are non-consensual or where consent is proscribed. This offence is divided into subdivisions of Sexual assault and Non-assaultive sexual offences.

Sexual harassment

The Personal Safety Survey collects information about a persons experience of selected types of sexual harassment behaviours only. These include indecent phone calls; indecent texts, emails or posts; indecent exposure; inappropriate comments; unwanted touching, grabbing, kissing or fondling; distributing or posting pictures or videos of the person, that were sexual in nature, without their consent; and exposure to pictures, videos or materials which were sexual in nature that the person did not wish to see. Definitions for each behaviour can be found under 'Sexual harassment' in the glossary for the Personal Safety, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0).

NB Comparisons between the data collected for sexual harassment in Personal Safety, Australia, 2005 (Reissue) (cat. no. 4906.0) and Personal Safety, Australia, 2012 (cat. no. 4906.0) cannot be made. The 2012 survey included instances where the sexual harassment behaviours experienced by the respondent were found to be improper or offensive due to their sexual nature. The 2005 survey, in contrast, determined whether respondents had ever experienced the sexual harassment behaviours but did not ask whether the respondent found the behaviours to be improper or offensive due to their sexual nature. An additional type of sexual harassment behaviour (an indecent text, email or post) was also added to the 2012 measure of sexual harassment in order to capture emerging methods of sexual harassment. These changes were considered necessary for the 2012 Personal Safety Survey (PSS), but this has resulted in a significant change to the definition of sexual harassment and means that the data are no longer comparable between the two surveys.

Sexual threat, threatened sexual assault

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. If a person experienced sexual assault and sexual threat in the same incident, this was counted once only as a sexual assault.

Sexual violence

The occurrence, attempt or threat of sexual assault experienced by a person since the age of 15. For further information, refer to the Violence Prevalence and Violence - Most Recent Incident pages in the Personal Safety Survey, Australia: User Guide, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0.55.003).

Stalking

Stalking involves various behaviours, such as loitering and following, which the person believed were being undertaken with the intent to cause them fear or distress. To be classified as stalking more than one type of behaviour had to occur, or the same type of behaviour had to occur on more than one occasion. Behaviours include:

• Loitered or hung around outside person's home;
• Loitered or hung around outside person's workplace;
• Loitered hung around outside person's place of leisure or social activities;
• Followed or watched them in person;
• Followed or watched them using electronic tracking device (e.g. GPS tracking system, computer spyware);
• Maintained unwanted contact with them by phone, postal mail, email, text messages or social media websites;
• Posted offensive or unwanted messages, images or personal information on the internet about them;
• Impersonated them online to damage their reputation;
• Hacked or accessed their email, social media or other online account without their consent to follow or track them;
• Gave or left objects where they could be found that were offensive or disturbing; and
• Interfered with or damaged any of their property.