Crime rates have fallen across the country over the past five years, new crime statistics reveal.
The number of assaults and robberies has fallen since 2008, as well as the number of break-ins and car thefts, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures.
The ABS Crime Victimisation Survey, released on Wednesday, reveals the number of assault victims aged 15 or older fell by 0.4 percentage points to 2.7 per cent.
In comparing 2008/09 figures to 2012/13, the survey also found face-to-face threatened assaults dropped 1.1 percentage points, robberies fell 0.2 points and break-ins dropped by 0.6 points.
The rate of sexual assault remained steady, fluctuating from 0.2 per cent and 0.3 per cent.
Australians were most likely to be threatened with violence out of all crime categories, with an estimated 576,800 people experiencing a threat of some kind last year.
But only half of all assault and robbery victims ended up reporting the crime to police, the survey found.
Sexual assault victims went to the police in about a third of such incidents.
William Milne, ABS director of the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics, says victims cited alcohol as a contributing factor in the majority of assault cases.
He said 65 per cent viewed alcohol as playing a key role in the crime, and that figure jumped to 82 per cent when the assault occurred in an entertainment venue.
The survey was conducted throughout Australia from July 2012 to June 2013 to provide an estimate on the extent of victimisation.
