Skip to start of content

Home → Subjects → Violent crime → Sexual assault → Statistics → Sexual assault victim-offender relationship statistics

Sexual assault victim-offender relationship statistics

Sexual assault victims, relationship to offender, 2003 (percent)(a)

a: Excludes Queensland and Western Australia (information not available). Also excludes the 5% of recorded assaults where the relationship between victim and offender was not stated or not known in the remaining jurisdictions

b: Known other includes known non-family and known not further defined and may include some family members

This chart refers to 2003 sexual assault data, the most recent available for this variable.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997-2007. Recorded crime, victims, Australia (various years; title varies). ABS cat. no. 4510.0. Canberra: ABS

  • Where the relationship between victim and offender was stated, most sexual assault victims had some form of relationship with the offender (78%).
  • Two in five sexual assaults were perpetrated by a family member. The figure is higher (47%) for male victims.
  • In 38% of sexual assaults the offender was a non-family member known to the victim.
  • Females (23%) were more likely than males (15%) to be sexually assaulted by strangers.