By Tom Sullivan Emily Faulconbridge Samantha Bricknell Merran McAlister

The first data from the new Australian Sexual Offence Statistical (ASOS) collection shows:

• There were 8,326 unique alleged sexual offenders proceeded against by police in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory in 2021–22.

•  The male sexual offending rate in these six jurisdictions was 75.64 per 100,000 and the female sexual offending rate was 5.12 per 100,000.

• The largest proportion of offenders proceeded against for sexual offences in 2021–22 were alleged to have committed penetrative or non-penetrative sexual conduct offences (77%, n=6,450), followed by handling of unlawful sexual material offences (24%, n=2,024), enabling unlawful sexual conduct offences (8%, n=656) and persistent sexual abuse offences (1%, n=82).

• Around one-third of offenders in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory were a non-family member known to the victim (32%, n=1,891), 15 percent (n=886) were an intimate partner, 19 percent (n=1,124) were other family and 21 percent (n=1,267) were a stranger.

Statistical Report no. 47. 

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2024. 65p.