SEXUAL ASSAULT

WHAT IS SEXUAL ASSAULT?

For this survey, sexual assault is defined as an act of a sexual nature carried out against a person's will or without a person's consent. It involves physical contact and/or the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion.

Sexual assault 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 person)
• assault with the intent to sexually assault
• incidents that occurred at the person’s place of work.

Sexual assault 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. Characteristics of the most recent incident (e.g. location) were not asked about for this crime type.

Due to the relatively small numbers of persons experiencing sexual assault, it is not possible to provide the same level of detailed information for sexual assault as other types of personal crime.

WHO EXPERIENCED SEXUAL ASSAULT IN 2015–16? (Table 19)

During the 12 months prior to interview, 0.4% of Australians aged 18 years and over (77,400) experienced sexual assault.

REPORTING RATE (Table 5)

Less than one-third of all persons who experienced sexual assault (30%) had their most recent incident reported to police.