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Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2002

Selected crime profiles

Homicide

The definition of homicide used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is the unlawful killing of another person. Homicide statistics discussed here include the following categories of offences:

  • murder - the wilful killing of a person either intentionally or with reckless indifference to life; and
  • manslaughter - the unlawful killing of a person caused:
    • without intent to kill, usually as a result of a careless, reckless or negligent act; or
    • intentionally, but due to extreme provocation; or
    • when in a state of mind that impairs the capacity to understand or control one's actions.
  • There were 340 homicides in Australia in 2001, with two victims per 100,000 population. This represents a reduction of 2% compared to the 346 homicides in 2000.
  • Murder contributed 90% of the victims recorded in 2001. The remainder were victims of manslaughter.

Source: References 1 and 5

Location of homicides

Victims of homicide

Trend in homicide

Trend in firearm homicides

  • The percentage of homicides committed with a firearm continued its declining trend since 1969. In 2001, 16% of homicides involved firearms. The figure was 18% in 2000.

References: 1 and 2

Assault

The ABS defines assault as the direct infliction of force, injury or violence upon a person, including attempts or threats.

  • In 2001 there were 151,753 assaults recorded by the police, at a rate of 779 per 100,000 population, and an increase of 8% from the number of victims recorded during 2000.

Source: References 1 and 3

Location of assaults

Victims of assault

Victim-offender relationship

Trend in assault

Sexual assault

The ABS definition of sexual assault is a physical assault of a sexual nature, directed toward another person where that person:

  • does not give consent; or
  • gives consent as a result of intimidation or fraud; or
  • is legally deemed incapable of giving consent because of youth or temporary/permanent incapacity.

Sexual assault includes: rape, sexual assault, sodomy, buggery, oral sex, incest, carnal knowledge, unlawful sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and assault with intent to rape.

  • There were 16,744 victims of sexual assault recorded by the police in Australia in 2001, an increase of 7% from 2000.
  • There were about 86 victims of sexual assault per 100,000 population.

Source: Reference 1

Location of sexual assaults

Victims of sexual assault

  • Eighty-one per cent of sexual assault victims were female.
  • In 2001 the number of male victims of sexual assault decreased slightly (2%) while the number of female victims increased by 9% relative to 2000.

Source: Reference 1

Victim-offender relationship

Trend in sexual assault

Robbery

Robbery, as defined by the ABS, is the unlawful taking of property, without consent, accompanied by force or threat of force. Robbery victims can be persons or organisations.

Types of robbery

Robbery is divided into the following two categories of offences.

  • Armed robbery: This is robbery conducted with use of a weapon. A weapon is any object used to cause fear or injury. It also includes imitation weapons and implied weapons; for example, where a weapon is not seen by the victim but the offender claims to possess one.
  • Unarmed robbery: This is robbery conducted without the use of a weapon.

Trend in robbery

Armed robbery

  • There were 11,056 armed robberies recorded during 2001. This represents a 17% increase since 2000.

Source: Reference 1

Unarmed robbery

  • There were 15,509 unarmed robberies recorded during 2001. This represents a 12% increase from the incidence in 2000.

Source: Reference 1

Unlawful entry with intent

Unlawful entry with intent (UEWI) is defined by the ABS as the unlawful entry of a structure with the intent to commit an offence. UEWI offences include burglary, break and enter, and some stealing.

Types of Unlawful entry with intent

UEWI is divided into the following two categories of offences.

  • UEWI.property: This is UEWI where property is taken from a structure.
  • UEWI.other: This is UEWI where no property is taken from a structure.
  • In 2001 there were 435,524 incidents of UEWI recorded by the police in Australia, a small decrease on the number recorded in 2000.
  • The rate of UEWI decreased from 2,281 victims per 100,000 population in 2000 to 2,235 victims per 100,000 population in 2001.
  • The rate of unlawful entry at residential locations decreased slightly from 3,862 per 100,000 households in 2000 to 3,798 per 100,000 households in 2001.

Source: References 1 and 3

Location of unlawful entry with intent

Trend in unlawful entry with intent

Motor vehicle theft

Motor vehicle theft is the taking of a motor vehicle unlawfully or without permission. It excludes damaging and tampering or interfering with motor vehicles. The theft of motor vehicle parts or contents is included under the offence category 'other theft'. The term 'motor vehicle' refers to cars, motorcycles, campervans and trucks.

  • There were 139,943 motor vehicles recorded stolen to police in 2001, with 1,121 vehicles stolen per 100,000 registered cars. This represents a 1% increase on the number recorded in 2000.
  • Motor vehicle thefts averaged one every four minutes across Australia in 2001.
  • One motor vehicle was stolen for every 90 registered vehicles.

Location of motor vehicle theft

Trend in motor vehicle theft

Recovery rates

This section presents data on recovery rates of stolen vehicles from the National CARS (Comprehensive Auto-theft Research System) Project.

  • A total of 110,990 stolen cars were recovered in the 2000-2001 financial year, resulting in a national recovery rate of 80%.
  • Forty-three per cent of all stolen motor vehicles are recovered after one day, with 58% recovered after two days and 83% recovered after one week.

Source: Reference 22

Other theft

The ABS defines other theft (stealing) as the taking of another person's property with the intention of permanently depriving the owner of the property illegally and without permission, but without force, threat of force, use of coercive measures, deceit or having gained unlawful entry to any structure even if the intent was to commit theft.

This offence includes such crimes as pickpocketing, bag snatching, stealing, theft from a motor vehicle, theft of motor vehicle parts/accessories/petrol, stealing of stock/domestic animals, and theft of non-motorised vehicles/boats/aircraft/bicycles. It is the largest of all the crime categories included in the national statistics.

  • A total of 699,262 victims of other theft was recorded by the police in 2001, with 3,588 victims per 100,000 population in Australia. This represents a 4% increase from the number recorded in 2000 (674,813).

Source: Reference 1

Location of other theft

Trend in other theft