Personal Violence

This section identifies the common trends of five personal violence offences: assault, robbery, rape and sexual assault, domestic violence and homicide. Common trends are examined in order to enable false perceptions held by many police officers and community members alike, to be identified and dispelled. It also allows for a number of offence characteristics including the prevalence, characteristics of victims and offenders, common locations, etc. to be identified and preventative strategies developed to minimise the actual risk of being a victim of these offences.

Five contributing factors of personal violence will also be discussed in terms of the influence they can have on people becoming either victims or offenders of personal violence. Finally, strategies will be identified to restrict both the incidence and negative impacts of these contributing factors.