Sexual assault statistics at each stage of the justice system

This graphic shows the pathways through the justice system for people who have have been sexually assaulted. It combines multiple datasets from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on victims of crime, crimes reported to police, and court outcomes. As such, the numbers for each step do not align, as they’re from different time periods and use different categories and methods. It is still useful to combine these to give an approximate picture of the whole system

The number of sexual assaults in a year depends on survey methods used. Experts say the best estimate is from the ABS personal safety survey, last carried out in 2016 [1]. Based on this there were 201,000 sexual assaults in 2016, which was 1.1% of Australians.

The majority of people do not report sexual assaults to the police, with estimates again varying by survey methods. People do not report for many reasons [3], including their relationship to the offender, confidence in the justice system, and fear of reprisals or stigma.

There has however been a consistent increase in the number of sexual assaults reported to police over time [4], which may indicate some of these barriers to reporting are breaking down

Sexual assault cases stand out in both police and court statistics. For offences where the ABS tracks the outcome of police investigations [5], sexual assaults are the second-most likely type of offence to be finalised without proceedings being initiated against an offencer (19.1%) and have one of the highest rates of cases not being finalised at 30 days compared with other crimes against the person, such as assault or murder

Court cases where the primary charge is ‘sexual assault and related offences’ have the highest aquittal rate of 8.9% when compared with other offences [6], and these cases are the most likely to be withdrawn by the prosecution (16.3%)

1) Personal Safety Australia, 2016, Australian Bureau of Statistics. Figure for ‘not reported’ is total sexual assaults of women and men from the PSS less the number of sexual assault cases reported to police in 2016. The number reported to police includes cases involving both adults and children, so this reporting figure should be treated as a rough estimate

2) Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2017 and 2020, Australian Bureau of Statistics

3) Non-reporting and Hidden Recording of Sexual Assault, 2003, Australian Insitute of Criminology

4) Trends in violent crime, 2008, Australian Insitute of Criminology

5) Criminal Courts, Australia, 2020, Australian Bureua of Statistics. Percentages calculated as a proportion of total cases, not total adjudicated cases

Sexual assault statistics at each stage of the justice system

This graphic shows the pathways through the justice system for people who have been sexually assaulted. It combines multiple datasets from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on victims of crime, crimes reported to police, and court outcomes. As such, the numbers for each step do not align, as they’re from different time periods and use different categories and methods. It is still useful to combine these to give an approximate picture of the whole system

The number of sexual assaults in a year depends on survey methods used. Experts say the best estimate is from the ABS personal safety survey, last carried out in 2016 [1]. Based on this there were an estimated 201,000 sexual assaults of adults in 2016, which was 1.1% of Australians.

The survey also measures the number of women who contacted the police about the most recent incident within the last 10 years. Only 13.4% of women did so. For this chart, we have estimated the reporting rate for 2016 based on the number of sexual assaults reported to police in 2016 from a different ABS dataset [2]

The majority of people do not report sexual assaults to the police, with estimates again varying by survey methods. People do not report for many reasons [3], including their relationship to the offender, confidence in the justice system, and fear of reprisals or stigma.

There has however been a consistent increase in the number of sexual assaults reported to police over time [4], which may indicate some of these barriers to reporting are breaking down

Sexual assault cases stand out in both police and court statistics. For offences where the ABS tracks the outcome of police investigations [5], sexual assaults are the second-most likely type of offence to be finalised without proceedings being initiated against an offencer (19.1%) and have one of the highest rates of cases not being finalised at 30 days compared with other crimes against the person, such as assault or murder

Court cases where the primary charge is ‘sexual assault and related offences’ have the highest aquittal rate of 8.9% when compared with other offences [6], and these cases are the most likely to be withdrawn by the prosecution (16.3%)

1) Personal Safety Australia, 2016, Australian Bureau of Statistics. Figure for ‘not reported’ is total sexual assaults of women and men from the PSS less the number of sexual assault cases reported to police in 2016. The number reported to police includes cases involving both adults and children, so this reporting figure should be treated as a rough estimate

2) Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2017 and 2020, Australian Bureau of Statistics

3) Non-reporting and Hidden Recording of Sexual Assault, 2003, Australian Insitute of Criminology

4) Trends in violent crime, 2008, Australian Insitute of Criminology

5) Criminal Courts, Australia, 2020, Australian Bureua of Statistics. Percentages calculated as a proportion of total cases, not total adjudicated cases

The number of sexual assaults in a year depends on survey methods used. Experts say the best estimate is from the ABS personal safety survey, last carried out in 2016 [1]. Based on this there were an estimated 201,000 sexual assaults of adults in 2016, which was 1.1% of Australians.

The survey also measures the number of women who contacted the police about the most recent incident within the last 10 years. Only 13.4% of women did so. For this chart, we have estimated the reporting rate for 2016 based on the number of sexual assaults reported to police in 2016 from a different ABS dataset [2]

The majority of people do not report sexual assaults to the police, with estimates again varying by survey methods. People do not report for many reasons [3], including their relationship to the offender, confidence in the justice system, and fear of reprisals or stigma.

There has however been a consistent increase in the number of sexual assaults reported to police over time [4], which may indicate some of these barriers to reporting are breaking down

Sexual assault cases stand out in both police and court statistics. For offences where the ABS tracks the outcome of police investigations [2], sexual assaults are the second-most likely type of offence to be finalised without proceedings being initiated against an offender (19.1%) and have one of the highest rates of cases not being finalised at 30 days compared with other crimes against the person, such as assault or murder

Court cases where the primary charge is ‘sexual assault and related offences’ have the highest acquittal rate of 8.9% when compared with other offences [5], and these cases are the most likely to be withdrawn by the prosecution (16.3%)