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Street Assault Statistics Misleading

 
'Street assault' statistics published on the 10 August 2009 in the Mercury newspaper were incorrect.

Acting Deputy Commissioner, Scott Tilyard, said the statistics quoted were from the Australian Bureau of Statistics publication 'Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2008' which recorded a total number of 3749 victims of assault in Tasmania in 2008.

“Tasmania actually recorded a total of 1219 public place assaults in 2008/09,” Mr Tilyard said.  “This is less than a third of the figure quoted as 'street assaults' in the Mercury."

“The figure of 3749 includes all assaults, not only assaults in public places, so to suggest the streets of Hobart are violent as a result of that number is misleading.”

The 3749 assaults also included family violence incidents, most of which occurred in the home.

The ABS publication states: “Most victims of assault knew the offender (65% or 2,447 victims); 18% (or 667) of victims identified a partner as the offender, while 9% (344 victims) identified an ex-partner as the offender. The proportion of women who identified an offender as a partner (32%) for assault was much higher than for men (4%).”

“We acknowledge random attacks occur occasionally but in the majority of cases, the offender is known to the victim."

“While the rate of public place assaults is still too high, they have actually been trending downwards for some years."

The Australian Bureau of Statistics warns against comparing the statistics across different States.  The introduction to 'Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2008' states: “Data for the offences of assault and sexual assault are not comparable across jurisdictions and therefore should not be compared.”  (refer to paragraphs 12 to 17 of the explanatory notes on the ABS website.)

“The clearance rate for person offences has improved over the ten years to 2005/06 from 42.5% to 95.3% and remains at 94%,” Mr Tilyard said.  “This is heartening to the community because it encourages people to report offences, safe in the knowledge that police will act on their complaint and work hard to see it through to resolution, with offenders being brought before the courts."

“As can be seen from the figures below, assaults have been steadily decreasing since 2005, when the Family Violence Act came into effect.”

Victims, Assault Offences - Tasmania 2004-2008:

Public Place Assaults - Tasmania: