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Australian crime : facts and figures 2001
- ISBN 0 642 24253 4
- Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2002
Volume of crime
Since the 1970s, most industrialised countries have conducted crime victimisation surveys to estimate the extent of crime. The information gleaned from these surveys supplements the statistics produced by police services.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has conducted national crime surveys in 1975, 1983, 1993 and 1998, with the next survey being planned for April 2002.
The most recent crime survey data for Australia come from the International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS), which was conducted in March 2000. The following section provides data from the Australian component of the ICVS.
International Crime Victims Survey
The ICVS is a fully standardised survey conducted in a number of countries around the world that enables international comparisons of crime victimisation and attitudes toward crime and the criminal justice system. Seventeen industrialised countries participated in the 2000 ICVS. The Australian Institute of Criminology coordinated the Australian component of the survey.
Australia has participated in the 1989, 1992 and 2000 sweeps of the ICVS, but did not take part in the 1996 survey. The Australian component of the ICVS collected data about experiences of victimisation for the following offences.
Household offences:
- break and enter (attempted and completed);
- motor vehicle theft;
- motor vehicle damage; and
- theft from motor vehicle.
Personal offences:
- robbery;
- assault;
- sexual offences (rape, attempted rape, indecent assault and offensive sexual behaviours);
- theft from the person; and
- consumer fraud.
There are some differences between the ABS crime victim surveys and the 2000 ICVS. Compared to the ABS surveys, the ICVS has a much smaller sample size (3 031 persons), uses Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) as the data collection methodology, includes residents of private dwellings aged 16 years and over, uses a longer and more comprehensive questionnaire, and asks more detailed questions.
The 1998 ABS survey gained information from 42 200 persons and 20 900 households. The survey was conducted among residents of private dwellings aged 15 years and over, however, only females aged 18 years and over were asked sexual assault questions. Questionnaires were delivered to respondents, who mailed them back to the ABS upon completion.
Notwithstanding these differences, at the national level both the ICVS and national crime and safety surveys produce estimates of similar magnitude.
The following data refer to persons' and households' experiences of crime in 1999, as estimated from the 2000 ICVS. For personal crimes, excluding sexual offences, rates are computed as the number of victims per 100 persons aged 16 years and over. To obtain estimates of sexual offences that are comparable to those produced by the ABS, the rates of sexual assault and offensive sexual behaviour were calculated relative to the number of females aged 18 years and over.
Figure 1a and Figure 1b contain data on the number of victims of crime per 100 persons or households.
Figure 1a : Selected crimes-persons victimised on at least one occasion in 1999, rate per 100 persons
* Rape, attempted rape or indecent assault of females aged 18 years and over.
** Against females aged 18 years and over.
- The most commonly mentioned personal crimes were consumer fraud (9%), assault (7%) and theft from the person (7%).
- Persons most at risk of assault and theft included young people, never-married persons, students and those who regularly go out in the evening for the purposes of entertainment.
- A female aged 18 years and over was four times more likely to be the victim of offensive sexual behaviour than rape, attempted rape or indecent assault.
- About one in five persons reported being a victim of a personal crime in 1999.
Figure 1b : Selected crimes-households victimised on at least one occasion in 1999, rate per 100 households
- The most common household crimes were motor vehicle damage (9%) and theft from a motor vehicle (6%).
- Just over 4% of households reported being a victim of a completed burglary (break-in).
- About one in five households reported being a victim of a household crime in 1999.
Repeat victimisation
Repeat victimisation refers to a person or household being a victim of the same offence on more than one occasion during 1999.
There was a total of 2 204 517 incidents of household crime compared to 1 356 247 victims, and 4 700 949 incidents of personal crime compared to 2 246 572 victims, indicating that many victims suffer repeated incidents of crime.
Figure 2a : Victims of selected personal crimes-percentage victimised on more than one occasion, 1999
* Rape, attempted rape or indecent assault of females aged 18 years and over.
** Against females aged 18 years and over.
- For personal offences, repeat victimisation was particularly common among victims of sexual offences, with 45% of sexual assault victims and 61% of offensive sexual behaviour victims experiencing more than one incident in 1999.
Figure 2b : Victims of selected household crimes-percentage victimised on more than one occasion, 1999
- Victims of motor vehicle theft were less likely to be repeat victims compared to the victims of motor vehicle damage or theft from a motor vehicle.
- About one in five victims of break-in, either completed or attempted, reported being a victim on more than one occasion in 1999.
Source: Reference 1.
Reporting crime
It is well known that not all crime is reported to police, and rates of reporting vary depending on the type of offence, seriousness of incident, and victim-offender relationship.
Figure 3a : Personal offences, percentage of incidents reported to police, 1999
* Rape, attempted rape or indecent assault of females aged 18 years and over.
** Against females aged 18 years and over.
- Robbery and assault recorded the highest rates of reporting, with 57% and 43% of victims, respectively, reporting the incident to police.
- Two in five victims of sexual assault (rape, attempted rape, indecent assault) reported the incident to the police, while police came to know about 8% of incidents of offensive sexual behaviour.
- About 12% of victims of consumer fraud reported the incident to the police. Of the remaining victims, 25% reported the incident to an agency other than the police.
Figure 3b : Household offences, percentage of incidents reported to police, 1999
- The highest rates of reporting occurred for motor vehicle theft and completed break-in, with 96% and 83% of victims, respectively, reporting the incident to the police. Such a high level of reporting is most likely due to insurance considerations.
- The lowest rate of reporting was for motor vehicle damage (32%). This was the most common household offence, with 9% of households being victims in 1999. It is likely that the majority of incidents were not of a serious nature.
- Most crimes were not reported to police because victims thought it was 'too trivial/unimportant', 'there was nothing police could/would do', or it was a 'personal matter and they would take care of it themselves'.
Source: Reference 1.
Perceptions of seriousness
Victims tend to perceive some types of crime as more serious than others, depending on factors such as the value of material losses or the amount of physical injury inflicted upon them.
Victims of crime were asked to assess the seriousness of the incident they experienced in 1999. A crime could be rated as being very serious, fairly serious or not very serious.
Figure 4a : Perceptions of seriousness among victims of personal offences, percentages, 1999
* Rape, attempted rape or indecent assault of females aged 18 years and over.
** Against females aged 18 years and over.
- Two in three victims of robbery perceived the incident as being of a very serious nature.
- Half of the victims of sexual assault perceived the crime as being very serious, compared to only 11% of victims of offensive sexual behaviour.
- No victims of sexual assault perceived the incident as being not very serious.
Figure 4b : Perceptions of seriousness among victims of household offences, percentages, 1999
- Victims of motor vehicle theft were more likely to perceive the crime as being very serious (38%) compared to theft from a motor vehicle (12%) or motor vehicle damage (10%).
- Completed break-in incidents were twice as likely to be perceived as very serious compared to attempted break-ins.
Source: Reference 1.
Selected crime profiles
This section provides further details about the offences which are included in the ICVS but are excluded from the ABS survey-theft from a motor vehicle, motor vehicle damage and consumer fraud.
Theft from a motor vehicle
In the 2000 ICVS, respondents were asked if they, or members of their household, had been the victim of theft of property that was left in their car, or attached to their car.
Figure 5 : Theft from a motor vehicle, by location where incident occurred, 1999
- Almost half of the incidents occurred at or near the victim's home or residence (46%), and 46% occurred in the city/local area or workplace.
Over half of the incidents of theft from a motor vehicle in 1999 were reported to the police. The main reasons for reporting are highlighted in Figure 6.
Figure 6 : Theft from a motor vehicle, reasons for reporting to police, 1999
- The most common reason for reporting was to recover property (35%), followed by a sense of obligation to notify the police (18%), and the need to stop the crime reoccurring (18%).
The reasons for incidents of theft from a motor vehicle not being reported to the police are shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 : Theft from a motor vehicle, reasons for not reporting to police, 1999
- The main reason for not reporting the incident to the police relates to the theft being trivial in nature (58%).
Source: Reference 1.
Motor vehicle damage
Besides motor vehicle theft and theft from a motor vehicle, respondents were also asked if they, or other members of their household, were a victim, in 1999, of any type of deliberately inflicted damage to any vehicles they owned.
Figure 8 : Motor vehicle damage, by location where incident occurred, 1999
- About 42% of incidents of motor vehicle damage occurred at or near the victim's place of residence.
- Over half of the incidents occurred elsewhere in the city/local area or workplace.
Source: Reference 1.
Consumer fraud
Data on experiences of consumer fraud were obtained by asking respondents if someone, when selling something to them or delivering a service, cheated them in terms of quantity or quality of goods or services. The results indicate that about 9% of people were a victim of this type of crime in 1999, making consumer fraud the most prevalent type of personal crime covered in the survey.
Figure 9 : Consumer fraud, persons victimised at least once, age and gender, rate per 100 persons, 1999
- Overall, 9% of males and 8% of females were the victim of consumer fraud in 1999. The victimisation rate peaked between the ages of 25 and 34 years for males, whereas for females, the peak occurred among 35-49-year-olds.
- Males and females aged 16-24 and 35-64 years experienced similar levels of fraud victimisation in 1999.
- Within the older age group (65 years and over), males were more likely to experience consumer fraud compared to females.
Source: Reference 1.
Type of fraud
Figure 10 : Type of fraud, percentages, 1999
- The majority of victims (44% of males, 54% of females) experienced fraud related to some type of commercial transaction (for example, mail-order purchases, telemarketing, door-to-door selling).
- Males were more frequently affected by fraud related to construction, building or repair work, financial fraud and fraud involving car purchases. In contrast, females were more frequently defrauded as a result of work done at a garage or mechanical workshop, commercial transactions, and other types of fraud not classified elsewhere.
Source: Reference 1.
International comparisons
National crime surveys may be of limited use for international comparisons due to factors such as differences in survey design, coverage, methodology for data collection, and offence definitions.
In contrast, the 2000 ICVS was designed to enable comparisons between countries regarding inhabitants' experiences of crime, perceptions of safety and the criminal justice system.
This section compares Australia and a selection of countries participating in the 2000 ICVS (England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Canada and the United States) in terms of reporting behaviour, firearm ownership and perceptions of policing.
Reporting crime
| Offence | Australia | England & Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | USA | Canada |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Rape, attempted rape and indecent assault against females aged 16 years and over. | ||||||
| **Against females aged 16 years and over. | ||||||
| Robbery | 57 | 59 | 68 | 73 | 68 | 41 |
| Assault with force | 58 | 55 | 48 | 63 | 58 | 47 |
| Threats | 34 | 29 | 34 | 36 | 51 | 30 |
| Sexual assault* | 38 | 30 | 59 | 32 | 30 | 32 |
| Offensive behaviour** | 7 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 6 |
| Pickpocketing | 36 | 47 | 53 | 31 | 33 | 37 |
| Other personal theft | 40 | 49 | 60 | 29 | 30 | 26 |
| Consumer fraud | 13 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 13 |
- Robbery and assault with force are the offences more frequently reported to police in most countries.
- The lowest rates of reporting for robbery occurred in Canada where less than half of the victims reported the incident to the police. In contrast, almost three-quarters of victims of robbery in Northern Ireland contacted the police.
- Reporting rates for sexual assault were low across all countries, with the exception of Scotland, where a majority of victims reported the incident to the police.
- In the United States, victims were more likely to report threats to the police, compared to Australia and other countries.
- Together with Canada, Australia recorded the highest reporting rate for consumer fraud.
| Offence | Australia | England & Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | USA | Canada |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Theft of car, van or truck. | ||||||
| Break-in | 83 | 90 | 91 | 86 | 68 | 80 |
| Attempted break-in | 37 | 62 | 49 | 40 | 45 | 46 |
| Motor vehicle theft* | 96 | 89 | 89 | 95 | 95 | 99 |
| Theft from motor vehicle | 52 | 71 | 69 | 61 | 61 | 58 |
| Motor vehicle damage | 32 | 43 | 47 | 44 | 48 | 47 |
| Motorcycle theft | 10 | 94 | 100 | 100 | 71 | 34 |
| Bicycle theft | 65 | 69 | 78 | 64 | 55 | 50 |
- Reporting levels were highest for motor vehicle theft, motorcycle theft and completed break-in. Completed break-ins were reported to the police at a considerably lower rate in the United States than in the remaining countries.
- Australia had the lowest reporting rates for theft from a motor vehicle and motor vehicle damage.
Firearm ownership
The extent and characteristics of civilian firearm ownership may impact upon the use of firearms in the commission of crimes. In the 2000 ICVS, respondents were asked details about their own and their household's level of firearm ownership. Figure 11 shows the percentage of households owning a firearm in 1989 and 2000, for Australia and selected countries.
Figure 11 : Percentage of households owning a firearm, Australia and selected countries, 1989 and 2000
- On average, levels of firearm ownership have declined since the initial sweep of the ICVS by about 36% among the selected countries. In Australia, levels of firearm ownership declined by 45% between 1989 and 2000.
- The United States recorded the highest level of firearm ownership in 2000. An American household was three times as likely to own a firearm as an Australian household, and almost 12 times more likely than households in England and Wales, and Scotland.
- In Australia, the majority of households which owned a firearm did so for hunting or sportrelated purposes.
- About 66% of murders and 41% of robberies occurring in the United States in 2000 involved the use of a firearm, compared to 20% and 6% of murders and robberies, respectively, in Australia.
Source: References 1, 2, 17, 18 and 19.
Perceptions of policing
Respondents were asked to assess the overall success of police at controlling crime in their area.
Figure 12 : Percentage who think police do a good job controlling crime in their area, Australia and selected countries, 1989 and 2000
- Perceptions of police performance improved slightly in all countries in 2000, compared to 1989, with the exception of Canada.