Alcohol-related harm to others: a survey of physical and sexual assault in New Zealand

Abstract

Aim: To describe the 12-month prevalence of physical and sexual assault, and the association of assault with drinking by the perpetrator.

Methods: Population-based survey of 16,480 adult New Zealanders, using computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI).

Results: Nearly 7% of men and 3% of women reported having been physically assaulted in the previous year, with 44% of these people having suffered more than one assault. One percent of women and 0.4% of men reported sexual assault, with 45% assaulted more than once. More than half of all physical assaults and sexual assaults involved a perpetrator who was reported to have been drinking. Perpetrators who had been drinking at the time were more likely to be strangers or other people outside the respondent's family, rather than relatives, and the assaults were less likely to have occurred inside the respondent's home, compared with assaults where the perpetrator was not drinking. Physical and sexual assaults were also associated with usual drinking patterns of the victims.

Conclusion: Alcohol use by someone other than the victim is involved in more than half of reported assaults. Our findings suggest that, in New Zealand, more than 62,000 physical assaults and 10,000 sexual assaults occur every year which involve a perpetrator who has been drinking. Of these, 10,500 incidents require medical attention and 17,000 involve police. This burden can be reduced using population-based strategies of demonstrated effectiveness.