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Australian Crime : facts and figures 2004

2. Selected crime profiles

Homicide

The definition of homicide used by the 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.

This reflects categories recorded by police at the time of the homicide and does not reflect the final outcome at conviction of an offender. It also does not include:

  • attempted murder: the attempt to unlawfully kill another person by any means, act or omission; and
  • driving causing death: the unlawful killing of a person caused through culpable, dangerous or negligent driving.

Data from the ABS are supplemented with more detailed information collected by the Australian Institute of Criminology through the National homicide monitoring program (NHMP). The ABS reports on a calendar year and the AIC on a financial year basis.

  • There were 341 homicides in Australia in 2003, with almost two victims per 100,000 population. This represents a decrease of 6% over the 363 homicides in 2002.
  • Murder accounted for 89% of the victims recorded in 2003. The remainder were victims of manslaughter.

Source: References 1 and 5

Location of homicides

Victims of homicide

Victim-offender relationship

Type of weapon

Trend in homicide

Trend in firearm homicides

Assault

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

In 2003 there were 158,629 assaults recorded by the police, at a rate of 798 per 100,000 population. This was a decrease of 2% over the rate recorded in 2002.

Source: References 1 and 4

Location of assaults

Victims of assault

Victim-offender relationship

Type of location and gender of victim

Trend in assault

Sexual assault

The ABS defines sexual assault as 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 18,237 victims of sexual assault recorded by the police in Australia in 2003, an increase of 1% from 2002.
  • There were about 92 victims of sexual assault per 100,000 population, 149 per 100,000 females and 33 per 100,000 males.

Source: Reference 1

Location of sexual assaults

Victims of sexual assault

  • Eighty-two per cent of sexual assault victims were female.
  • Between 2002 and 2003, the number of male victims of sexual assault increased by 1% while the number of female victims increased by 4%.

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 the use of a weapon. A weapon is any object used to cause fear or injury, and 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.

Source: Reference 1

Trend in robbery

Type of weapon

Armed robbery

There were 7,162 armed robberies recorded during 2003. This represents an 8% decrease compared with 2002.

Source: Reference 1

Unarmed robbery

There were 12,557 unarmed robberies recorded during 2003. This represents a 4% decrease from the number in 2002.

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: UEWI where property is taken from a structure; and
  • UEWI - other: UEWI where no property is taken from a structure.

The rate of UEWI decreased from 2,006 victims per 100,000 population in 2002 to 1,778 in 2003.

Source: References 1 and 4

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 98,813 motor vehicles reported stolen to police in 2003, with 773 vehicles stolen per 100,000 registered cars. This represents a 13% decrease on the number recorded in 2002.
  • Motor vehicle thefts averaged one every six minutes across Australia in 2003.
  • One motor vehicle was stolen in 2003 for every 129 registered vehicles.

Source: References 1 and 8

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 72,041 stolen cars were recovered in 2003, resulting in a national recovery rate of 77%.
  • Forty-one per cent of all recovered motor vehicles are recovered within one day, 67% within two days and 82% within one week.

Source: Reference 9

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.

Source: Reference 1

Location of other theft

Trend in other theft

Fraud and deception-related crime

As information about fraud and deception-related crime is not collected by the ABS, this section presents data extracted from information published by state and territory police agencies. The standard classification of fraud and deception-related offences includes cheque and credit card fraud, fraudulent trade practices, social security fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, bribery and other deception offences. Precise definitions may vary by state.

Fraud offences are recorded by the police on a financial year basis.

Drug offences

The Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence reported drug arrest and seizure statistics from 1992 until 2001. Since then the Australian Crime Commission has reported these statistics. The 2002-2003 version of this publication is titled the Illicit drug data report. This section provides an overview of arrest patterns for offenders between 1995-1996 and 2002-2003.

Arrest information is provided for the following types of drugs:

  • cannabis;
  • heroin (and other opioids);
  • amphetamines;
  • cocaine; and
  • other drugs (hallucinogens, steroids and drugs not defined elsewhere).

Cannabis arrests include expiation notices, drug infringement notices and simple cannabis offence notices. Offenders involved in drug arrests are divided into two categories:

  • consumers: persons charged with user-type offences (for example, possessing or administering drugs for own personal use); and
  • providers: persons charged with supply-type offences (for example, importation, trafficking, selling, cultivation and manufacture).

In the case of a person being charged with consumer and provider offences, the provider charge takes precedence and the person is counted only as a provider of that drug.