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Chapter 1: Recorded crime

Data on recorded crime as published by the ABS for the period 1996 to 2012 are presented in this first chapter. The information is based on police records of crimes from 1 January to 31 December each year. A victim of crime 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 inconsistencies among jurisdictions in recording, the ABS has not released aggregated data on 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 included in this chapter. It is important to note that since 2011, assault figures from the ABS do not include information from Victoria, Queensland or Tasmania and are therefore significantly lower than the expected national figure. Hence, the assault figures for 2011 and 2012 should not be compared with those of previous years.

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

Source: Reference 1

Number of recorded victims of crime

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 selected violent crimes, 1996–2012 (n)

	Homicidea	Assaultb	Sexual assault	Robberyc	Kidnapping/abduction
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	160,118	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	729
2006	321	172,441	19,555	17,375	726
2007	283	176,077	19,954	17,996	733
2008	293	170,720	19,992	16,513	788
2009	293	175,277	18,807	15,238	564
2010	261	171,083	18,027	14,631	608
2011	276	117,992	17,592	13,653	675
2012	297	116,105	18,153	13,155	636

a: Comprises the offences of murder and manslaughter

b: 2011 and 2012 figures do not include information from Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania. Therefore these assault figures cannot be compared with those prior to 2011

c: Comprises the offences armed and unarmed robbery. Robbery is classified as a violent crime, as the use or threat of violence is more serious than a property offence

Note: Number of victims presented here represents revised estimates on numbers published in earlier editions of Australian Crime: Facts & Figures

Continuing the trend of recent years, robbery offences decreased in 2012.

• Assaults continue to represent the majority of recorded violent crimes. The number of assault victims fell from 117,992 to 116,105 between 2011 and 2012 (based on data available from all jurisdictions except for Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania).
• In 2012, the number of homicides and sexual assaults increased. There were 21 more homicides and 561 more sexual assaults (3% increase) compared with figures recorded in 2011.

Source: Reference 1

• Homicide incidents have been generally decreasing through the last decade. However, in 2012 there was an additional 21 incidents of homicide, representing an eight percent increase over 2011. The 297 incidents recorded in 2012 is still 16 percent lower than the 385 incidents of 1999, the highest number of homicides recorded since 1996.
• Kidnapping/abduction totals have fluctuated over the 10 year period. The greatest percentage decrease was recorded in 2008–09 at 28 percent. In 2011–12, there were 39 fewer victims of kidnapping/abduction, a decrease of six percent from 2011.
• Between 2011 and 2012, robbery decreased by four percent continuing a trend of a decreasing number of incidents evident form much of the last 10 years.

Source: Reference 1

Property crime

Property crime comprises UEWI (also referred to as break and enter or burglary), MVT and ‘other’ theft, which includes offences such as pickpocketing, bag snatching, shoplifting and bicycle theft.

Table 2 Victims of property crime, 1996–2012 (n)

	UEWI	MVT	Other theft
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	248,475	70,614	491,935
2008	241,760	68,265	497,053
2009	222,664	59,649	478,807
2010	217,030	54,821	465,547
2011	218,285	55,310	490,059
2012	214,222	58,574	500,552

Note: Number of victims presented here represents revised estimates on numbers published in earlier editions of Australian Crime: Facts & Figures

• Property crime continued to be reported at a much higher volume than violent crime.
• The number of MVTs increased from 55,310 in 2011 to 58,574 in 2012.
• The number of ‘other’ theft victims (n=500,552) also increased in 2012 compared with 2011, where there were 490,059 recorded victims.
• By contrast, there were 4,063 fewer victims of UEWI offences in 2012 than were recorded in 2011; a two percent decrease.

Source: Reference 1

• Despite a small increase in 2011, UEWI victimisation continued an overall downward trend in 2012 that has been evident since the 1990s.
• Conversely, MVT and to a lesser extent other theft victimisation, increased in 2012.
• Following a small increase in MVT in 2011, the six percent increase in the number of victims of MVT in 2012 is the greatest percentage increase on record for the last 10 years. Overall however, MVT still remains half as prevalent as it was in 1996.
• Other theft victimisation increased by two percent.

Source: Reference 1

Recorded crime victimisation 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 of the population per year.

Violent crime victimisation rate

Note: Homicide and kidnapping each occur at rates of fewer than 5 per 100,000 population per year and are difficult to distinguish on this graph

• In the last six years, the rate of robbery victimisation has steadily declined from 86 per 100,000 in 2007 to 58 per 100,000 in 2012. Generally, the rate of robbery victimisation has been declining since 2001.
• The rate of sexual assault victimisation increased to 80 per 100,000 in 2012. The last increase in the rate of victimisation was seen in 2006. The rate of victimisation in 2012 is at a similar rate to what it was in 1996, when the rate was 79 per 100,000.
• The rate of homicide victimisation has never exceeded two per 100,000 in the 17 years for which data are available. Victimisation has stayed at one per 100,000 since 2007.
• In 2012, like 2011, the rate of kidnapping/abduction was three per 100,000 population; much lower than the peak of four per 100,000 in 1999.

Source: References 1 and 2

Property crime victimisation rate

• The rate of ‘other’ theft victimisation reached its lowest point since data were available at 2,064 per 100,000 in 2010, before rising modestly to 2,206 per 100,000 in 2012.
• The rate of UEWI victimisation has generally declined since 2001. In 2012, the victimisation rate was 944 per 100,000 population—the lowest on record since the collection of data in 1996.
• Between 2011 and 2012, the rate of MVT victimisation increased by five percent; from 245 to 258 per 100,000 population.

Source: References 1 and 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; and
• other—including retail premises, recreational facilities, government offices and warehousing/storage.

The number of victims of selected violent offences that occurred within each type of location is presented in Table 3.

Table 3 Location type of violent crimes, 2012

	Murder	Sexual assault	Robbery	Kidnapping/abduction
Residential
Residential dwelling	134	11,215	1,064	134
Outbuilding/residential land	11	234	171	11
Other residential	12	248	27	12
Total residential	157	11,697	1,262	157
Community
Transport	5	607	1,121	5
Street/footpath	38	1,197	5,128	38
Other community location	20	1,527	383	20
Total community	63	3,331	6,632	63
Other location
Retail	10	767	3,809	10
Recreational	8	839	988	8
Other	6	253	262	6
Total other	24	1,859	5,059	24
Unspecified	10	1,193	138	10
Total	254	18,080	13,091	254

• Sexual assault and murder victimisation occurred most frequently in the home. Specifically, 11,215 sexual assaults (62% of all sexual assault victims) and 134 murders (53% of all murder victims) occurred in a residential dwelling.
• Instances of robbery most commonly occurred on the street/footpath, accounting for 39 percent of all robbery victims. Retail and transport settings were the second and third most common robbery locations (29% and 9% respectively).
• For kidnapping/abduction, the most common location for victimisation was on the street/footpath (39%), followed by residential dwellings (37%) and other community locations (8%).

Source: Reference 1

a: Excludes assault

• Residential dwellings remain the most common location for violent crime victimisation. In 2012, the number of victims of violent crime in the home increased by six percent to 12,650.
• The number of victims of violent crimes committed on the street/footpath has decreased by 34 percent since 2007, reaching a low of 6,613 victims in 2012.
• Violent crimes occurring in recreational settings rose by four percent between 2011 and 2012; from 1,787 to 1,865.
• The number of victims of violent crimes in retail settings increased by eight percent between 2011 and 2012, from 4,297 to 4,619 victims.
• The number of violent crimes occurring in retail, recreational and transport settings has remained relatively stable since 2005.

Source: Reference 1

Table 4 Location type of property crimes, 2012

	UEWI	MVT	Other theft
Residential
Residential dwelling	131,709	0	52,978
Outbuilding/residential land	16,494	26,512	94,226
Other residential	3,716	26	3,169
Total residential	151,919	26,538	150,373
Community
Transport	422	3,507	31,499
Street/footpath	3	18,527	61,876
Other community location	10,959	854	24,485
Total community	11,384	22,888	117,860
Other location
Retail	24,358	3,605	171,753
Recreational	5,567	656	18,446
Other	19,601	4,002	28,869
Total other	49,526	8,263	219,068
Unspecified	1,394	884	13,251
Total	214,223	58,573	500,552

• UEWI victimisation most commonly occurred in residential settings. Sixty-one percent (n=131,709) of victims of UEWI were victimised in dwellings and eight percent (n=16,494) occurred on outbuilding/residential lands.
• In 2012, the highest proportion of MVTs occurred on outbuilding/residential lands, which represented 45 percent of all MVT offences. A further 32 percent of victims had their motor vehicles stolen on the street/footpath.
• The greatest number of ‘other’ thefts occurred in retail settings (34%), followed by outbuilding/residential land (19%) and on the street/footpath (12%).

Source: Reference 1

Note: n=621,649. Excludes residential locations that could not be classified as a dwelling, outbuilding/residential land and locations not further defined

• The largest proportion of all property crimes in 2012 occurred in retail settings (31%), followed by residential dwellings (29%).
• Property offences were least likely to occur on transport (6%), other community settings (6%) and recreational settings (4%).

Source: Reference 1

• Since 2009, property crimes were most often committed in retail settings. In 2012, 199,716 property offences occurred in retail settings compared with 178,098 offences in residential settings.
• There has been an overall decline in offence numbers for all property offence types since 2000. For example, there has been a 63 percent decrease in property crimes at transport locations, a 59 percent decline in community locations and a 54 percent decline on the street/footpath.
• Despite an overall decline, property crimes in retail locations increased by six percent between 2011 and 2012.

Source: Reference 1