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Recorded crime

Data on recorded crime as published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the period 1996 to 2007 are presented in this first section. The information is based on police records of crimes from 1 January to 31 December each year. A victim can be a person; premises; or a motor vehicle.

The ABS has been collecting and publishing data since 1996 on the following eight major categories of offences: homicide (murder and manslaughter), assault, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, unlawful entry with intent (UEWI), motor vehicle theft (MVT), and other theft. It is estimated that these crimes account for about 60 percent of all crimes recorded by police.

Due to inconsistency among jurisdictions in recording, the ABS has not released aggregated data on assault or sexual assault since 2003. As trends within jurisdictions appear to be consistent, however, the data for each jurisdiction have been released. The AIC used these data to compile the Australian totals for assault and sexual assault included in this chapter.

Caution must be exercised when comparing the number of robbery victims from different years, due to an undercounting of victims in New South Wales (NSW) prior to 2005. Similarly affected are data on the number of victims of UEWI prior to 2006, because of an overstatement of victims in NSW. General trends, however, appear not to be affected.

Source: Reference 1

Number of recorded crimes

Violent crime

Violent crime includes homicide, assault, sexual assault, robbery, and kidnapping (sometimes referred to as abduction). Although robbery may include an element of property crime, it is included as a violent crime, as the use or threat of violence is a more serious offence than the theft.

Table 1 Victims of violent crimes from 1996 to 2007 (number)

	Homicide	Assault	Sexual assault	Robbery	Kidnapping
Note: Number of victims presented here represents revised estimates on numbers published in earlier editions of Australian crime: facts & figures
1996	354	114,156	14,542	16,372	478
1997	364	124,500	14,353	21,305	564
1998	334	130,903	14,689	23,801	707
1999	385	134,271	14,699	22,606	766
2000	362	138,708	16,406	23,336	695
2001	347	152,283	17,577	26,591	767
2002	366	159,548	18,718	20,989	706
2003	341	157,280	18,025	19,709	696
2004	302	156,849	19,171	16,513	768
2005	301	166,507	18,695	17,176	730
2006	322	172,441	19,555	17,375	725
2007	282	176,427	19,781	17,988	730

• Assaults continue to represent the majority of recorded violent crimes. The overall trend since 1996 has been upward, with an increase of 55 percent between 1996 and 2007.
• The trend in sexual assault has also followed a general increase. The highest numbers of victims of sexual assault and of assault were recorded in 2007.
• There were 282 victims of homicide in 2007: a 12 percent decrease from 2006 and the lowest number recorded in the past 12 years.
• Continuing the trend since 2004, robbery offences increased again in 2007, to 17,988.
• The number of recorded kidnappings fluctuates from year to year. From 1996 to 2004, kidnappings registered a general increase, but the number of victims of kidnapping has remained relatively steady following a decline in 2005.

Source: Reference 1

• The trends in the past five years of selected violent crimes have varied. Variability from year to year is more pronounced in offences that have fewer victims, such as homicide.
• Recorded homicide declined from 2002 to 2004, increased in 2006, and decreased again in 2007.
• Both assault and robbery have increased since 2004.
• The number of sexual assault victims has shown a fluctuating pattern, with the number of victims recorded increasing in three of the five years considered.

Source: Reference 1

Property crime

Property crime comprises unlawful entry with intent (UEWI, also referred to as break and enter or burglary), motor vehicle theft (MVT), and other theft, which includes offences such as pickpocketing, bag snatching, shoplifting, and bicycle theft.

Table 2 Victims of property crimes from 1996 to 2007 (number)

	UEWI	MVT	Other theft
Note: Number of victims presented here represents revised estimates on numbers published in earlier editions of Australian crime: facts & figures
1996	402,079	122,914	521,762
1997	421,569	130,138	530,881
1998	434,376	131,587	563,482
1999	415,735	129,552	612,559
2000	436,968	138,912	681,268
2001	435,754	139,894	700,137
2002	394,323	113,460	680,799
2003	354,020	98,298	624,036
2004	308,675	87,939	548,778
2005	281,994	80,365	518,335
2006	262,005	75,377	518,734
2007	248,423	70,650	492,222

• As in previous years, other theft was the most commonly recorded property crime in 2007, accounting for 61 percent of property crime victims.
• The number of recorded victims of other theft has decreased by 30 percent since 2001, from 700,137 to 492,222.
• In 2007 there were 248,423 recorded victims of an UEWI, a decline of five percent from the previous year.
• The number of MVT victims increased by 14 percent from 1996 to 2001, and decreased from 2001 to 2007 by 49 percent.

Source: Reference 1

• The overall trend in property crime offences in the past five years has been one of decline. All forms of property crime exhibited a decline in 2007, representing an overall five percent decrease from the previous year.

Source: Reference 1

Recorded crime rates

Trends in the number of recorded crime victims do not take into account increases in the population over time. As a result, an increase may reflect an increase in the general population in that period rather than an increase in the actual likelihood of a person becoming a victim of crime. Crime rates adjust for changes in population size. In this section, they are calculated per 100,000 persons in the population per year.

Violent crime rate

• Recorded assault increased again in 2007, to 840 per 100,000, compared with 623 per 100,000 in 1996. The 2007 rate was the highest recorded since 1996.
• The rate for robbery peaked in 2001. Rates have declined by 38 percent since 2001, to 86 per 100,000 per year.
• The rate of kidnapping remained between three and four per 100,000 per year from 1996 to 2007.
• The homicide rate was 1.9 per 100,000 in 1996 (which includes the 35 victims of the Port Arthur massacre) and was at its highest in 1999, at 2.0 per 100,000. In 2007, the rate was 1.3 per 100,000, the lowest recorded (since 1996).
• The rate of recorded sexual assault increased between 1997 and 2007, from 78 to 94 persons per 100,000 per year.

Source: Reference 1 and Reference 2

Property crime rate

• Property crime rates in 2007 were the lowest recorded in the 12-year period since 1996.
• The rate of other theft peaked at 3,607 per 100,000 per year in 2001, before dropping by a third in the period to 2007.
• The rate of UEWI remained relatively stable from 1996 to 2001 and has declined since then.
• MVT has also decreased since 2000, from 725 per 100,000 in 2000 to 336 per 100,000 in 2007, a 54 percent decrease.

Source: Reference 1 and Reference 2

Location of crime

The ABS classifies crime locations according to the function of the site of the crime. There are three broad location types:

• residential (including houses, garages/carports, motels and hostels)
• community (including car parks, transport facilities, streets and footpaths, and schools)
• other (including retail premises, recreational facilities, government offices, and warehousing/storage).

Table 3 shows the number of selected violent offences that occurred within each type of location.

Table 3 Location type of violent crimes in 2007 (number)

	Murder	Assault	Sexual assault	Robbery	Kidnapping
a: Total includes locations not further defined
n.a.: not available
Residential
Dwelling	152	n.a.	n.a.	1,549	203
Outbuilding/residential land	4	n.a.	n.a.	123	6
Total residentiala	162	78,575	13,033	1,693	212
Community
Transport	3	n.a.	n.a.	1,495	29
Street/footpath	40	n.a.	n.a.	8,234	326
Other community	15	n.a.	n.a.	955	53
Total communitya	62	61,074	3,676	10,734	408
Other
Retail	8	n.a.	n.a.	3,592	45
Recreational	10	n.a.	n.a.	878	26
Other location	5	n.a.	n.a.	970	29
Total othera	23	35,484	2,319	5,440	100
Unspecified location	6	1,294	723	121	12
Total	253	176,427	19,751	17,988	732

• Of all murders (n = 253), 64 percent occurred in a residential location; of all robberies (n = 17,988), 90 percent occurred outside the home.
• Of all assaults (n = 176,427), 45 percent occurred in residential locations and 35 percent in community locations.
• Streets and footpaths represented the most common location for robberies (46% of 17,988) and kidnappings (45% of 732).
• Of all sexual assaults (n = 19,751), two-thirds (66%) occurred in residential locations.

Source: Reference 1

• Between 2000 and 2007, violent crimes declined in most categories of location, although the decrease was not uniform among all location types.
• There was an increase from 2006 to 2007 in the number of violent crimes carried out in residential and transport settings, on streets and footpaths, and in other community settings.
• Violent crimes perpetrated in retail locations declined by 14 percent between 2006 and 2007. Since 2000, there has been an overall fall of 42 percent.
• The number of violent crimes per year at recreational locations fell by 34 percent from 2000 to 2007.

Source: Reference 1

Table 4 shows the number of property offences (UEWI, MVT, and other theft) that occurred within each type of location.

Table 4 Location type of property crimes in 2007 (number)

	UEWI	MVT	Other theft
a: Total includes locations not further defined
- : not applicable
Residential
Dwelling	146,441	40	56,447
Outbuilding/residential land	14,840	24,944	75,315
Total residentiala	164,307	25,984	133,672
Community
Transport	1,180	5,612	41,535
Street/footpath	-	25,893	79,617
Other community	16,917	1,134	26,683
Total communitya	18,114	32,714	148,551
Other
Retail	30,290	7,712	144,938
Recreational	6,739	895	20,902
Other location	25,793	3,732	36,119
Total othera	62,822	11,799	201,959
Unspecified location	3,180	1,153	8,040
Total	248,423	71,650	492,222

• Of all UEWI crimes (n = 248,423), the majority (66%) occurred in a residential location, and 12 percent in a retail location.
• Of all MVT offences (n = 71,650), most (62%) occurred in a public location.
• Of all other theft crimes (n = 492,222), retail was the most prevalent theft location (29%).

Source: Reference 1

• Property offences were most likely to occur at a dwelling (25%) or a retail location (23%) or on the street or footpath (13%).
• Property offences were least likely to occur at recreational locations (3%) or on transport (6%).

Source: Reference 1

• From 2000 to 2007, the greatest relative declines in property crimes were in those carried out at recreational locations (57%), other community locations (50%) and on transport (48%).
• Property crimes on streets and footpaths declined by 39 percent, and those perpetrated in dwellings declined by 36 percent, between 2000 and 2007.

Source: Reference 1