Major alcohol policy changes in the NT do not appear to have impacted the rate of sexual assault

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-12-07 03:00

Australia; NSW; VIC; SA; WA; NT

Photo by Vinicius "amnx" Amano on Unsplash

Three major alcohol policy changes for the NT do not appear to have made a dent in the number of sexual assaults reported in the Territory, according to Australian research. The team looked at the rate of victim reports for sexual assault from 2014 to 2020 to see whether any of three policy changes between 2017 and 2018 made an impact. The three policy changes were; a Banned Drinker Register enforced by ID scanners at bottle shops, a minimum unit price on alcohol, and police liquor inspectors. The researchers say 40% of reported adult sexual assaults are estimated to involve alcohol, however they did not see any change to sexual assault trends over time that correlated with any of the policy changes. They say the study does come with limitations as it relies on police reports, while sexual assault is highly underreported in Australia.

Media release

From:

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research Wiley, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Drug and Alcohol Review

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Menzies School of Health Research, La Trobe University, Burnet Institute, Deakin University, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI), University of New South Wales, Flinders University, University of Melbourne

Funder: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The LEarning from Alcohol (Policy) Reform in the NT (LEARNT) study is funded by an ARC Linkage Grant (LP180100701), the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, Northern Territory Government, and the Northern Territory Primary Health Network. SC is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship and a Menzies School of Health Research Top-Up Scholarship. ML is supported by an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship and CW is supported by an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.