Sexual violence is the act of sexual intercourse without the consent of the other person under the Consolidation Act of New South Wales 1900 (Austlii 2011) and is also described by The Australian Standard Offense Classification as 'non-consensual sexual acts or intent' (ASOC 2008, p. 31) have become one of the most widespread crimes creating social harm in Australia. Social harm is defined as the negative influence through consequences that affect the individual on the living conditions of the surrounding public (Cain & Howe 2008, p. 26). Sexual violence poses a social threat to all aspects of the community, spreading insecurity to 9,000 victims across Australia and 1,900 victims in NSW alone, as reported in the Australian Bureau of Statistics Crime Victimization Report (ABS 2011, p. 40 ). This is supported by the fact that the victimization rate of all victims of sexual violence aged 10 to 14 is 4 times higher than for all other age groups (ABS 2010). Another major issue within sexual violence is that it holds one of the lowest prosecution rates with only 1 in 10 incidents able to prosecute the offender as guilty (Fitzgerald 2006, Pg. 1). The abundance of statistics and reports conducted imply that sexual violence is still a predominant crime issue in Australia. The large amount of research has provided several explanations to explain the behavior of offenders and the low rate at which sexual assault cases initiate criminal proceedings. through different theoretical perspectives. These include classical approaches that focus on the individual who committed sexual violence and positivist approaches that aim to explain the social factors that influence prosecution rates at...... middle of paper ......uments /0 /C/5/%7B0C5DFDDF-7A72-43F9-80A1-CA6D51B635B6%7Dtandi344.pdf, [Accessed 14 April 2011]. Lievore, D 2004, 'Victim credibility in adult sexual violence cases', Trends and problems in crime and criminal justice, NO. 288. Australian Institute of Criminology, [online]. Available at: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi2/tandi288.html. [Accessed 14 April 2011].Allerton, M, Butler, T, Champion, U & Kenny, D 2003, 2003 NSW Young People in Custody Health Survey: a summary of some key findings. Australian Institute of Criminology, [Online]. Available at: http://aic.gov.au/events/aic%20upcoming%20events/2003/~/media/conferences/2003-juvenile/kenny.ashx, [accessed 14 April 2011]. Bowlby, J 1997 , Attachment and loss, Penguin Press, Harmondsworth.Engels, F & Marx, K 1845, The condition of the working class in England in 1844, Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow.