THE ACT has recorded the highest rate of physical assault victims in the country, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. 

Around Australia, figures showed the number of physical assaults during 2011-12 rose to 2.2 million, up 44 per cent since 2010-11.

The ACT recorded the highest victimisation rate for physical assault in the country at 4.7 per cent, well above the national average of 3 per cent.

Director of the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics Fiona Dowsley says physical assaults include acts “such as being pushed, grabbed, shoved, choked, shot, burnt, being hit with something such as a bat or being deliberately hit by a vehicle and could occur in public or in the home.”

“In addition to physical assault, personal crimes reported in this publication include face-to-face threatened assault, non face-to-face threatened assault, robbery and sexual assault,” Ms Dowsley says.

“Of those, only non face-to-face threatened assault saw an increase in the number of victims over the past year. Non face-to-face threatened assault includes threats made over the phone, via email or social media.”

Ms Dowsley says just under half of the nation’s physical assaults were reported to police.

The publication provides estimates for the number of victims over 15 years of age of selected types of crime and the proportion of these crimes that are reported to the police.