Violent Crime – a Victim of Violent Crimethroughout society?Violent crime refers to a variety of crimes that include sexual assault, homicide, robbery, kidnapping and assault. This essay will show that the risk of being a victim of violent crime is not evenly distributed throughout society. Violent crime victimization is clustered within certain groups of people, so the likelihood of becoming a victim depends on different factors, including gender, age and Indigenous status. Depending on the persons gender and age they will be more or less likely to experience different types of violent crime, while being Indigenous directly increases the risk of becoming a victim.
Despite many believing females are the main victims of violent crime, both males and females experience it. However, males and females have different rates of being a victim of differing types of violent crime. For example, females are more likely to be victims of sexual assault and rape. This is demonstrated in a report conducted by the Australia Bureau of Statistics in 2016, where they found that 86% of sexual assault victims were female [ABS, 2017]. Comparatively males are more likely to be victims of homicide and assault shown in a report by Crime Statistics Australia, stating that between 2012–14 64% of homicide victims were male [CSA, 2017], and the majority of victims of physical assault were male as found by Crime Statistics Australia [CSA, 2017].
The incidence of sexual assault is an especially high issue. Approximately 4% of sexual assaults are perpetrated by offenders who have known the victim to be a victim of sexual assault[ABS, 2016]. Of women and the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases is therefore higher but there is a different incidence rate for men who are menstrual-related [ABS, 2016]. A 2012 study [CSA, 2013–14] compared the number of sexual assaults with that for women, but found that sexual violence accounted for just 8% of all sexual assaults being carried out between 1997 and 2005, whereas the ratio for males was 1.2:1 (Table 5). The largest proportion of assaults being committed by men are committed by victims of robbery or burglary, and the largest number are by victims of robbery, armed robbery, and rape. Approximately 2.6% of all sexual attacks are committed by perpetrators who are young males. In addition, a new report from the National Crime Archives reveals a trend of increasing sexual violence and robbery rates, as well as increasing availability of domestic violence and sexual contact with boys and girls. This reported trend also led to new recommendations for the Sexual Violence Against Children (S.ATCC) Bill.
The impact of domestic violence on those who are vulnerable depends heavily on the extent of the underlying problem (Meadows, 1992). For example, in one study conducted for a local authority in the State of NSW, researchers found that in their study of 1,083 female and 681 male assaults, the number of assaults that were reported each month was lower than the number of assaults that the authors of the study found were reported every year. In fact, in the NSW study the incidence rate was 3.1 times higher than the rate reported by the state as a whole. The incidence rate is therefore higher for male sex offenders. In other words, male sex offenders often experience higher rates of sexual abuse and violence. As explained above, the same can exist for female sex offenders.
The impact on the social, economic, and behavioural systems is much more profound and important than that of domestic violence as well. Violence against adults continues to occur worldwide, with the increase in domestic violence and child sexual abuse happening among children, and in Australia. At a global level, male child sexual abuse in Australia has been reported to increase by 50 times in the past 25 years. In 2012 statistics by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that among children and young people under the age of 13 in Australia, there is an estimated 3,700 children (aged 1–3 years old) who are subjected to child sexual abuse every year. Additionally, in Australia, children and adolescents are at greater risk than adults for children’s physical and behavioural abuse. In 2007, the Government estimated that there had been an annual incidence of more than 600 child sexual abuse assaults per year within Australia. In 2014, the government released statistics for the next 10 years covering child sexual abuse in Australia and the territories. These numbers were significantly higher than those from the previous two years,
Another factor that influences the risk of becoming a victim of violent crime is age. Depending on the type of violent crime certain age groups are more likely to experience these crimes. Statistics from Crime Statistics Australia show that from 2011–16 the most at risk group to be physically assaulted are people aged 25–34 [CSA, 2017] . Similarly, in 2016 the most at risk groups for robbery and kidnapping are people aged 25–34 years old [CSA, 2017]. Sexual assault victims are most likely to be aged from 10–14