Ellesa Throwden reported this story on Wednesday, April 17, 2013 18:46:00

PETER LLOYD: Victims of Crime groups say the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse is one of the driving factors behind a sharp jump in reported rape attacks in New South Wales. It follows the release of a Bureau of Crime Statistics report today which reveals sexual assaults across the state have risen by 130 per cent since the 1990s.



Ellesa Throwden Reports.



ELLESA THROWDEN: According to the bureau's latest long-term crime statistics New South Wales is the safest it's been in two decades. With crime rates dropping in most categories including murder, robberies and breaking and entering.



But sexual assault crime has seen an extraordinary increase over the last 20 years of 130 per cent.



Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics Dr Don Weatherburn says while it sounds alarming, the figures may actually be indicative of a positive change in society's attitude.



DON WEATHERBURN: It's possible, therefore I say possible not certain - people are more willing to report it particularly when it involves someone they know. These days many of the sexual assaults reported involve boyfriends and girlfriends or some of them involve husbands and wives, so some of these sexual assaults that occur in the context of a relationship are now coming into the justice system.



ELLESA THROWDEN: It's a view victims of crime groups agree with.



Howard Brown is the vice-president of the Victims of Crime Assistance League known as VOCAL. Today he's been in court assisting a 14-year-old rape victim, he says she is one of a growing trend in her age group coming forward to report sexual assault.



HOWARD BROWN: We are experiencing an increase in the number or people aged between 14 and 20. One of the reasons that we believe that that has been the case is that virtually every school in NSW now has a counsellor who has greater access to the information as to what support services are available for the students. Those students then retain that information so even when they leave school they are still inclined to make a report and get that assistance that they require.



ELLESA THROWDEN: And he attributes public discussion of abuse in the Catholic Church and the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse as having further encouraged people to talk about rape.



HOWARD BROWN: Because there has been a great deal of discussion about that of recent times, there is a change in the mindset because people are all of a sudden 'gee, I'm not the only person who's been affected by this' and so that's giving confidence to other victims who feel isolated by the process saying maybe I should do something about it and again that is a really good thing.



ELLESA THROWDEN: It's a theory the head of the NSW Bureau of Statistics Don Weatherburn says is a strong possibility. Particularly since the Bureau's figures recorded a 21 per cent jump in sexual assaults in the Illawarra region on the New South Wales south coast where there's been a recent increase of reports of child sex assault.



DON WEATHERBURN: Some of the stigma associated with the reporting is falling away and that may be bringing more victims out into the light of day. Most of those increases have come from increased reporting of child sexual assault.



ELLESA THROWDEN: National figures on the instances of sexual assault don't exist. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that more than 50,000 people were victims of sexual assault across the country in 2011.



Dr Weatherburn says the lack of solid information is frustrating because such figures would help give a definitive answer as to whether or not sexual assault is occurring more frequently or just being reported more often.



DON WEATHERBURN: It's impossible to make long-term judgements about whether the prevalence of sexual assault has increased so we're really in a pretty dreadful situation in terms of monitoring trends in sexual assault.



But I think it's absolutely imperative that the ABS step in here, develop good measures of the prevalence of sexual assault and stick to the definition so that we can not have to rely on police data and we can get a figure each year which tells us whether the problem is actually growing or whether there's just more people reporting it to police.



PETER LLOYD: That's Don Weatherburn, he's the director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics ending that report by Ellesa Throwden.