All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not originally generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
Murders, assaults, burglaries and robberies in NSW were at the lowest, or among the lowest, rates in the nation.
But sexual assault and domestic violence rates remained at about the national average, the data suggests.
Sexual violence is notoriously under-reported, criminologists and police say, because of social stigma, an adversarial legal system, and a lack of awareness about what constitutes an offence.
Sexual assault reports surged in NSW when police overhauled the sexual assault reporting option in January 2023, allowing people to more easily make anonymous disclosures without initiating a criminal investigation.
The aim is to create a record of an offence, as well as helping police gather information to identify repeat offenders or vulnerable communities.
Domestic and family violence remains a national scourge with similar rates nationwide, though BOCSAR notes the estimated rates from an ABS survey have “limited precision”.
Queensland had the highest victimisation rate at 0.95 per cent of residents, Victoria the lowest at 0.6, and NSW on 0.72, similar to the national average.
But women report violence from an intimate partner or family member at much higher rates: 3.8 per cent of women in NSW, slightly above the national average of 3.5 per cent.
Source: The two appalling crimes that won’t disappear from NSW