While the 2015 VicHealth indicator report, released on Tuesday, found nine in 10 participants felt safe walking by themselves during the day, that figure dropped to just 55 per cent of people after dark.

Similar figures were recorded statewide.

But Bendigo police officer Senior Sergeant Craig Gaffee said the city was a  “generally safe” community.

While he believed people should feel comfortable at night, the senior sergeant said his organisation was would work to increase public confidence after dark.

He cited extra policing at nighttime events, CBD patrols and a weekend presence in Bendigo’s nightclub district as ways police members put the public’s mind at ease.

Victorian women were twice as likely as their male peers to fear walking alone at night. 

But Centre for Non-Violence prevention and development manager Robyn Trainor said that finding was “distorted”, with women still more likely to be attacked in their own home by a partner or ex-partner.

It was men, she said, who were more likely to become victims of random violence – like coward’s punches – on the street.

Nevertheless, Ms Trainor said fearing for their safety affected the way women behaved at night.

“They curb their behaviour: they don't go out running on their own, they don't go to pub, or they don’t park in a street where there is no lights,” she said.

“They carry their keys in their hand.”

It was the offender who should have to change their behaviour, not the victim, Ms Trainor asserted.

VicHealth also turned up a lack of support for gender equality between intimate partners, with half of men aged 18 to 24, and one third of women the same age, agreeing with statements like “women prefer a man to be in charge of the relationship”.