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In 201-22 an estimated that 14% (2.8 million) of people aged 18 years and over have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 (ABS Personal Safety Survey 2021-22). A higher proportion of women have experienced sexual violence compared with men:
- over 1 in 5 (22% or 2.2 million) women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15
- 1 in 16 (6.1% or 582,400) men have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15
Trends in sexual assault
The chart below shows the number and rate of sexual offences recorded by the NSW Police.
This infographic provides information on sexual offence incidents reported to, and recorded by the NSW Police Force, including:
- the number, rates and trends in sexual offence incidents in NSW (sexual assault, and sexual touching and other sexual offences)
information about the types of sexual assault, including:
- adult sexual assault (incident occurring and reported when the victim is 16 years of age or older)
child sexual assault (incident occurring and reported when the victim is under 16 years of age)
historical child sexual assault (incident occurring when the victim is under 16 years of age and reported when aged 16 years or older)
- adult sexual assault (incident occurring and reported when the victim is 16 years of age or older)
- information about victims and perpetrators including their gender and age
Data file
See the infographic here: Sexual offences incidents (PDF, 252.7 KB)
Progress through the Criminal Justice System
Over the past decade there has been heightened public concern over the low conviction rate for sexual assault and it is certainly the case that sexual assault reports far out-number convictions in NSW. In 2022 there were 9,138 incidents of sexual assault reported to the NSW Police Force, compared with just 1,016 convictions. The low conviction rate among reported sexual assaults has been a consistent feature of this offence in the justice system.
There are various stages of the criminal justice system between reporting a criminal incident and conviction. An incident can fail to proceed to the next level at each of these stages. For instance, an offence might be reported to police but the offender not found. Another reported offence might proceed all the way to trial but the defendant found not guilty.
The infographic shows the number of sexual offences at various stages of the criminal justice process for sexual offences involving adult victims (aged 16 years and over at the time of the incident) and child victims (aged under 16 years at the time of the incident).
Read the full report: Attrition of sexual assaults from the New South Wales criminal justice system (PDF, 497.6 KB)
Regional trends in sexual assault
This tool provides information on sexual assault incidents reported to, or detected by, the NSW Police Force. It contains regional data for NSW, Greater Sydney, Regional NSW, Statistical Areas and Local Government Areas, for the past five years.
This tool can be used to identify:
- Number of incidents in each 12-month period
- Trends over two and five years
- Number of incidents per month
- Rate per 100,000 population
- Ratio of region rate compared with NSW rate
- Graph of reported incidents over time
We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future.
Informed by lessons of the past, Department of Communities and Justice is improving how we work with Aboriginal people and communities. We listen and learn from the knowledge, strength and resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal communities.
You can access our apology to the Stolen Generations.