Sexual assault rising in ‘world’s most liveable city’

Melbourne was recently ranked the world’s most liveable city, yet according to Victorian police crime statistics, those who live in Victoria, Australia are more likely to be sexually assaulted, and physically assaulted at home.

The annual Victorian police crime statistics report

  • 83% of sexual assault victims were women
  • 36% of rape victims were raped by someone they were related to, lived with or were in a relationship with
  • 46% were raped by someone other than this who was known to them
  • 82% were raped by someone they knew
  • 55% of all sexual offences other than rape occur at home
Acting Chief Commissioner Key Lay said the figures were the tip of the iceberg, with what the Police believed to be only one-in-seven sexual assaults actually reported.
In addition to sexual assaults figures, the police said family violence crime rose 26% in 2010/11. In particular the police report noted
  • 43% of assaults occur at home
  • 45% of assault victims were women

“As you look at this data, it’s quite stark, it’s dramatic, it’s confronting to see the number of crimes that are happening behind closed doors of residential premises,” Lay said.

“The community has got to get to a space where it says that this is totally unacceptable.”

“I think reporting is getting better, I’ve got no doubt at all though that there are many, many thousands of assaults happening in the home that we simply do not know about,” Lay said.

He said family violence was “having an enormous impact on mainly women, it’s having an enormous impact on children”.

Despite these local statistics it did not deter the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest survey awarding Melbourne the honour of being ‘the world’s most liveable city’.

“Australia, with a low population density and relatively low crime rates, continues to supply some of the world’s most liveable cities,” Economist Intelligence Unit survey edition Jon Copestake said.

Auckland, New Zealand was ranked number 10, and Wellington 23rd.

Libyan capital, Tripoli fell into the bottom 10 for the first time and Harare in Zimbabwe was ranked bottom.

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News category: World.

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