Canberra [Australia], January 30: The number of people reporting cases of sexual assault in Australia has grown by more than 40 percent over the last 10 years, a government report has revealed.
The federal government's principal review body, the Productivity Commission, on Monday published its annual report on government services including the justice system.
According to data in the report, 123.7 out of every 100,000 Australians reported being sexually assaulted to police in 2022, an increase of 42.8 percent from 86.6 out of every 100,000 people in 2013.
New South Wales, the largest of Australia's states and territories, had the highest rate of reported sexual assaults with 152.2 out of every 100,000 people having made complaints to police in the state in 2022, more than double the 71.2 out of every 100,000 people in the Australian Capital Territory.
Earlier in January, the federal government announced an Australian Law Reform Commission review into justice system responses to sexual violence.
Mark Dreyfus, Australia's attorney-general, said the inquiry would look into how the government can improve the justice system experiences of victims and survivors of sexual assault.
While the rate of sexual assault reports increased over the last decade, the national rate of armed robbery reports fell from 24.3 out of every 100,000 people in 2013 to 18.1 in 2022.
Australia's homicide rate fell slightly from 1.9 victims per 100,000 people to 1.6 in the same period.
Source: Xinhua
