4530.0 - Crime Victimisation, Australia, 2012-13 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/02/2014   
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GLOSSARY

Alcohol and/or any other substance
Includes any illegal or legal drugs or mood altering substances, which the victim believed contributed to the most recent incident of physical assault or face-to-face threatened assault. Other substances include marijuana, cocaine, ice, heroin, ecstasy, steroids, pharmaceuticals, inhalants, kava etc. Either the victim, the perpetrator, or both, may have been under the influence of alcohol and/or any other substance at the time of the incident. Incidents that occurred when the perpetrator was 'hungover' or the victim believed that their drink had been spiked are included.

Attempted break-in
An incident where an attempt was made to forcibly enter a home. Includes attempts to break-in to a caravan (if the caravan was the victim's permanent residence), garage, shed or any detached secure building such as games/hobby rooms or granny flat. Includes incidents where a person saw someone acting suspiciously around the property if it was suspected that their intent was to steal property. Excludes any attempted break-in that resulted in an actual break-in (e.g. where someone attempted to break in through a door but then gained entry through a window) and attempted break-ins to a motor vehicle.

Area of usual residence
The area in which a person usually lives and regards as their own or main home.

Assault
In this survey, refers to the sum of physical assault and threatened assault (both face-to-face threatened assault and non face-to-face threatened assault).

Audio/visual equipment
Includes TVs, VCRs, DVD players, and stereos.

Balance of state/territory
Comprises people usually resident in areas outside of the eight capital city Statistical Divisions (as defined in the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) (cat. no. 1216.0)). Balance of state/territory does not include any residents of the ACT.

Break-in
An act of unauthorised forced entry into a home or other place where a victim permanently resides. Includes forced entry to garages, sheds or any detached secure buildings such as games/hobby rooms and granny flats. Caravans are only included if it was the victim's permanent residence. Excludes forced entry to motor vehicles or front or rear yards and incidents of attempted break-in.

Capital cities
Comprises people usually resident in areas within the eight capital city Statistical Divisions (as defined in the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) (cat. no. 1216.0)). Includes all residents of the ACT.

Computer equipment
Includes PCs, printers, scanners and modems and tablet PC’s / handheld computers such as iPads.

Confront
To come into contact with an offender or offenders during a break-in.

Employed
All people aged 15 years and over who, during the week prior to interview:

    • worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind in a job or business, or on a farm (comprising employees, employers and own account workers)
    • worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers)
    • were employees who had a job but were not at work and were:
        • away from work for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week
        • away from work for more than four weeks up to the end of the reference week and received pay for some or all of the four week period to the end of the reference week
        • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement
        • on strike or locked out
        • on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job, or
    • were employers or own account workers, who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.

Exterior items
Includes walls, windows, doors, fences, gardens, letter boxes, statues, and outdoor settings.

Face-to-face threatened assault
Any verbal and/or physical threat, made in person, to inflict physical harm where the person being threatened believed the threat was able and likely to be carried out. Excludes any incident where the victim did not encounter the offender in person (e.g. via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media).

Family member
Family member includes parent, child, sibling or other family member.

Full-time (employed)
Employed people who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week (i.e. the week before the interview).

Household
A group of two or more related or unrelated people who usually reside in the same dwelling, who regard themselves as a household, and who make common provision for food or other essentials for living; or a person living in a dwelling who makes provision for his/her own food and other essentials for living, without combining with any other person.

Household crime
Crimes that were committed with the intent to deprive another person of, or deliberately damage, their personal property. The types of household crime included in the survey are break-in, attempted break-in, motor vehicle theft, theft from a motor vehicle, malicious property damage and other theft. Includes incidents occurring in all households in Australia the victim lived in during the 12 months prior to interview.

Incident
A single occurrence of a crime event, which may involve one or more crimes and/or crime types.

Interior furnishings
Includes walls, floors, and ceilings.

Known by sight only
Where the victim knew of the offender/s by sight only but did not have a personal relationship with them.

Labour force status
A classification of the civilian population aged 15 years and over, including employed, unemployed or not in the labour force, as defined. These definitions conform closely to the international standard definitions adopted by the International Conferences of Labour Statisticians.

Level of highest non-school qualification
Non-school qualifications are awarded for educational attainments other than those of pre-primary, primary or secondary education. They include qualifications at the Postgraduate degree level, Master degree level, Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate level, Bachelor degree level, Advanced Diploma and Diploma level, and Certificates I, II, III and IV levels. Non-school qualifications may be attained concurrently with school qualifications.

Main English-speaking countries
The main countries from which Australia receives, or has received, significant numbers of overseas settlers who are likely to, or mainly, speak English, including the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and the United States of America.

Malicious property damage
Intentional or wilful (not accidental) damage, defacement or destruction of any part of the victim's home or anything usually kept at home. Property is something tangible in nature, including land, conveyances, animals or other objects capable of being privately owned. Destruction can mean any alteration that may render something imperfect or inoperative, including destruction of property, graffiti or vandalism, partial destruction, killing or harming an owned animal and removing or destroying a plant or other part of an owned landscape. Excludes any rental, investment or holiday properties owned by a member of the household. Excludes acts such as turning off water meters and flicking safety switches if no damage to the meter occurred.

Marital status
A person's social marital status and reflects their current living arrangements. That is whether or not they are living with another person in a couple relationship either in a registered marriage or a de facto marriage.

Medical treatment
Includes incidents where a victim was admitted to hospital, or incidents where a victim was seen by a doctor or other medical practitioner in a hospital emergency room but not admitted to hospital.

Motor vehicle parts
Includes car audio and DVD equipment.

Motor vehicle theft
An incident where a motor vehicle was stolen from any member of the household. This includes cars, utilities, motorcycles (including motorised scooters), buses, trucks and motor homes. Includes privately owned vehicles and business/employer/company owned vehicles only if the vehicle was used exclusively by members of the household. Excludes boats, trailers and company vehicles not used exclusively by household members. For the purposes of this survey, motor vehicle theft incidents are considered to be household crimes.

Multiple victimisation
Victims who experienced more than one instance of the same crime type within the 12 months prior to interview.

Non face-to-face threatened assault
Any threat to inflict physical harm where the person being threatened believed the threat was able and likely to be carried out and where the victim did not encounter the offender in person. Non face-to-face threatened assault may occur via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media.

Non-main English-speaking countries
Countries where a language other than English is likely to be spoken. Note: Being from a non-main English-speaking country does not imply a lack of proficiency in English.

Non-victim
A household or person that did not experience at least one of the selected crime types in the 12 months prior to interview.

Not in the labour force
People who were not in the categories employed or unemployed as defined by Labour Force Status.

Offender
A person who commits a crime, as identified by the victim. There may be one or more than one offender involved in any one crime incident.

Other known person
Used to describe the relationship of the offender to the victim when the offenders was known to the victim, but the relationship did not match any of the other categories listed.

Other personal items
Refers to the type of property stolen in a crime incident. Includes any other personal items not specifically listed in the property type category, such as clothing and compact discs.

Other theft
Any unlawful taking of money or goods owned by a household member (other than from motor vehicles owned by a household member) with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of the money or goods, without the use, or threat, of force or violence, coercion or deception. Includes:
    • Property belonging to a member of the household not covered by the other types of crime included in the survey.
    • Property belonging to a household member stolen from a vehicle not owned by a household member.
    • Property stolen from a yard or garden (e.g. statues or plants).

Excludes any incidents involving theft covered in other crime types in the survey (e.g. break-in or robbery). Other theft is considered to be a household crime for the purpose of this survey.

Part-time (employed)
Employed people who usually worked less than 35 hours a week (in all jobs) and either did so during the reference week, or were not at work in the reference week (i.e. the week before the interview).

Personal crime
Crimes that were committed against a person which caused or threatened harm to their physical self. The types of personal crime included in the survey are physical assault, threatened assault (including face-to-face threatened assault and non face-to-face threatened assault), robbery (including attempts), and sexual assault (including attempts). Physical assault, threatened assault and robbery are collected for people aged 15 years and over and sexual assault is collected for people aged 18 years and over.

Personal matter
Relates to the reason a crime incident was not reported to police, where the victim felt they could deal with the issue themselves rather than involve the police.

Personal electronic equipment
Includes MP3 players, digital cameras, iPads.

Physical assault
An act of physical force or violence by an offender/s against a victim. 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 victim 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.

Place of entertainment/recreation
Includes pubs and nightclubs.

Police
State and territory police agencies. Excludes federal police, except in the Australian Capital Territory.

Prevalence
The number of people in the total population that have been a victim of a given crime at least once in the 12 months prior to interview. In this publication, prevalence is referred to as the 'victimisation rate', and is expressed as a percentage of the total population.

Private vehicle
Motor vehicle used for private purposes, e.g. car, motorcycle.

Professional relationship
A relationship between the victim and the offender/s which existed primarily through the course of the victim's occupation. Includes where the victim was working in a business for which the offender was a client at the time of an incident; relationships between medical professionals and patients; and relationships between police/security officers and offenders.

Public transport or public vehicle
Includes buses, trains, trams, ferries and taxis.

Qualification
Formal certification, issued by a relevant approved body, in recognition that a person has achieved an appropriate level of learning outcomes or competencies relevant to identified individual, professional, industry or community needs. Statements of attainment awarded for partial completion of a course of study at a particular level are excluded.

Relationship to offender
The victim's relationship to the offender/s at the time of the incident. More than one response could be provided if there were multiple offenders involved in the incident.

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

Relative Standard Error
The relative standard error (RSE) is a measure of sampling variability. That is, the survey estimates may differ from those that would have been produced had all persons been included in the survey. The Relative Standard Error is obtained by expressing the Standard Error as a percentage of the estimate. For more details, refer to the Technical Note.

Robbery
An act of stealing (or attempting to steal) property from a person by physically attacking them or threatening them with force or violence. Includes incidents that occurred at the victim's place of work. Excludes pick pocketing or other types of theft that did not involve physical or threatened violence.

Sexual assault
An act of a sexual nature carried out against the victim’s will or without the victim's consent. It involves physical contact and/or through the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion. Includes any actual or attempted forced sexual activity such as rape, attempted rape or indecent assault (e.g. being touched inside clothing or intentional rubbing of genitals against the victim) and assault with the intent to sexually assault. It includes incidents that occurred at the victim’s place of work. It excludes sexual harassment that did not involve or lead to an actual assault. For this survey, only people aged 18 years and over were asked the questions about sexual assault.

Theft from a motor vehicle
Where property owned by any member of the household was stolen from a motor vehicle owned (for private use) by any member of that household. Excludes property stolen that belonged to someone not living in the household (e.g. a friend or other relative) and property owned by a business or employer (e.g. a computer, mobile phone or work tools). Also excludes property stolen from commercial vehicles (e.g. a self-employed business operator whose vehicle is mainly used for work purposes) and any break-in to a motor vehicle where nothing was stolen. For the purpose of this survey, incidents of theft from a motor vehicle are considered to be household crimes.

Threatened assault
A verbal, written and/or physical threat to inflict physical harm where the person being threatened believed the threat was able and likely to be carried out. Threatened assault may occur face-to-face or via non face-to-face methods (such as email). 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 victim thought it was real) or if the person knew the perpetrator had access to a gun (including toy guns, started pistol etc). Also includes incidents where the victim 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.

Unemployed
People aged 15 years and over who were not employed during the reference week, and:
  • had actively looked for full-time or part-time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and were available for work in the reference week, or
  • were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then.

Victim
A person or household who has experienced at least one incident of a selected type of crime within 12 months prior to the interview in 2012–13. A victim may experience more than one incident of a type of crime, but is only counted once for each type of crime experienced.

Victimisation rate
The total number of victims of a crime in a given population, expressed as a percentage of that population.

Weapon used
Where the victim believed a weapon was present during the crime incident (even if they did not see a weapon), or where a weapon was not used during the incident but the victim was threatened that a weapon might be used. Weapon includes knife, gun, bat/bar, bottle/glass and syringe/hypodermic needle.