Australian crime : facts and figures 2007

• ISBN 978 1 921185 68 7 ; ISSN 1832-228X
• Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2008

Recorded crime

Data on recorded crime as published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the period 1996 to 2006 are presented in this first section. The information is based on crimes recorded by police 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, 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% of all crimes recorded by police.

The ABS has not released aggregated data on assault or sexual assault since 2003 due to inconsistent recording across jurisdictions. 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 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.

Table 1 : Victims of violent crimes, 1996-2006 (number)

	Homicide	Assault	Sexual assault	Robbery	Kidnapping
1996	354	114,156	14,542	16,372	478
1997	364	124,500	14,353	21,305	564
1998	332	130,903	14,336	23,801	707
1999	386	134,271	14,104	22,606	766
2000	363	138,708	15,759	23,336	695
2001	346	152,283	16,897	26,591	767
2002	365	160,118	17,977	20,989	706
2003	341	157,280	18,237	19,709	696
2004	293	156,849	18,400	16,513	768
2005	295	166,499	18,172	16,787	730
2006	319	170,907	18,211	17,284	725

• Between 1996 and 2003, the number of homicide victims fluctuated between 332 and 386, before dropping below 300 in 2004 and 2005. In 2006, homicide rose above 300 again, to 319.
• Continuing the trend of recent years, robbery offences increased in 2006.
• The number of recorded kidnappings fluctuates yearly. Over the period 1996-2004 kidnappings registered a general increase, but decreased between 2004 and 2006, from 768 to 725.
• The trend in recorded sexual assaults showed a steady increase over the period 1996-2004. A slight decrease in 2005 was followed by another increase in 2006.
• Assaults continue to represent the majority of recorded violent crimes. The overall trend since 1996 has been upward, with an increase of 50% between 1996 and 2006.

Source: Reference 1

• For violent crimes, the trend in the past five years has varied. Recorded homicide declined between 2002 and 2004, but increased slightly in 2004-2005 and then more so in 2005-06.
• Sexual assault increased in 2003-04, decreased slightly in 2004-05 and remained steady in 2005-06.
• Kidnapping is the only violent crime that registered a decline in 2006.
• Assault increased after 2004, with a more substantial rise occurring in 2004-05 than 2005-06.
• Variability from year to year is more pronounced for offences that have a smaller number of victims, such as homicide.

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. Other theft includes offences such as pickpocketing, bag snatching, shoplifting and bicycle theft.

Table 2 : Victims of property crimes, 1996-2006 (number)

	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	284,188	80,738	519,128
2006	261,895	75,115	517,492

• As in previous years, other theft was the most commonly recorded property crime in 2006, accounting for 61% of property crime victims.
• The number of recorded victims of other theft has decreased by 26% since 2001, from 700,137 to 517,492 victims.
• In 2006 there were 261,895 recorded victims of an UEWI, a decline of 8% from the previous year.
• The number of MVT victims increased by 14% between 1996 and 2001 but decreased by 46% between 2001 and 2006.

Source: Reference 1

The overall trend in property crime offences in the past five years has been one of decline.

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 over that time 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 and, in this section, are calculated for every 100,000 persons in the population.

Violent crime rate

• The trend in the rate of recorded assault increased steadily from 1996 to 2006. The rate in 2006 was 829, compared with 623 per 100,000 in 1996. The 2006 rate was the highest recorded since 1996.
• The rate for robbery peaked in 2001. Following a subsequent decline, the rate has levelled out to 84 per 100,000 in 2006.
• The rate of kidnapping remained between 3 and 4 per 100,000 between 1996 and 2006.
• The homicide rate was 1.9 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. By 2004 it had dropped to 1.5 and has remained stable since then.
• The rate of recorded sexual assault increased between 1996 and 2006 from 79 to 88 persons per 100,000. However, the increase has been much less marked in more recent years.

Source: References 1 and 2

Property crime rate

• The rate of other theft, which is the largest category of recorded property crime, increased between 1996 and 2001, and declined thereafter.
• The rate of UEWI remained relatively stable from 1996 to 2001 and has declined since then.
• The rate of MVT declined by 45% between 1996 and 2006, from 671 to 367 per 100,000. This includes a decrease of 13% between 2005 and 2006.

Source: References 1 and 2

Location of crime

The ABS classifies crime locations according to the function of the site where a criminal incident occurred. There are three broad locations:

• residential (including houses, garages/carports, motels and hostels)
• community (including car parks, transport facilities, street/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 : Selected violent crimes by type of location, 2006 (number)

	Murder	Assault	Sexual assault	Robbery	Kidnapping
a: Total includes not further defined
n.a.: not available
Residential
Dwelling	171	n.a.	n.a.	1,261	237
Outbuilding/residential land	7	n.a.	n.a.	132	13
Total residential(a)	184	77,157	12,168	1,411	253
Community
Transport	7	n.a.	n.a.	1,427	29
Street/footpath	35	n.a.	n.a.	7,767	291
Other community	21	n.a.	n.a.	613	39
Total community(a)	68	58,317	3,374	9,864	362
Other
Retail	8	n.a.	n.a.	4,173	59
Recreational	9	n.a.	n.a.	1,303	37
Other location	4	n.a.	n.a.	309	6
Total other(a)	21	34,419	2,021	5,898	105
Unspecified location	6	1,014	648	111	5
(Total)	(279)	(170,907)	(18,211)	(17,284)	(725)

• The majority of murders (66%, n=184) occurred in a residential location, while most robberies (92%, n=15,873) occurred outside the home.
• In 2006, 45% (n=7,767) of robberies and 40% (n=291) of kidnappings occurred on streets or footpaths, compared with 13% (n=35) of murders.
• Assaults were more likely to occur in residential (45%) and community (34%) locations.
• The majority of sexual assaults occurred in residential locations (67%).

Source: Reference 1

• Between 2000 and 2006, violent crimes declined overall in most categories of location, although the decrease was not uniform across all location types.
• Violent crimes carried out at transport and retail locations declined the most, by 49% and 32%, respectively.
• Violent crimes that occurred on the street/footpath and at recreational locations decreased by 7% and 3% respectively between 2000 and 2006.
• Violent crime rose by 3% at residential locations.

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 : Property crimes by type of location, 2006 (number)

	UEWI	MVT	Other theft
a: Total includes not further defined
Residential
Dwelling	153,319	0	59,292
Outbuilding/residential land	16,375	25,856	81,176
Total residential(a)	171,969	25,856	142,714
Community
Transport	748	5,797	38,059
Street/footpath	3	27,678	78,984
Other community	19,336	1,146	31,021
Total community(a)	20,109	34,681	148,784
Other
Retail	32,558	7,868	154,571
Recreational	7,212	1,339	24,302
Other location	25,408	2,180	29,070
Total othera	66,391	13,360	214,812
Unspecified location	3,427	1,218	11,182
Total	261,896	75,115	517,492

• Similar to previous years, MVT was more likely to occur in a public location (64%, n=48,041) than in or around a dwelling (34%, n=25,856).
• The majority of UEWI crimes (66%, n=171,969) occurred in a residential location, and 12% (n=32,558) in a retail location.
• In 2006, retail locations accounted for 30% (n=154,571) of other theft locations, replacing community areas (29%, n=148,784) as the primary location of such thefts.

Source: Reference 1

• Property offences were most likely to occur at a dwelling (28%), at a retail location (20%) or on the street/footpath (15%).
• Property offences were least likely to occur at recreational locations (6%) or on transport (8%).

Source: Reference 1

• Between 2000 and 2006 the number of property crimes carried out on transport, in recreational locations and at other community locations, declined the most, by 52%, 50% and 42%, respectively.
• Property crimes on the street/footpath declined by 39% and at residential locations by 33% between 2000 and 2006.

Source: Reference 1

Facts and figures 2007

• Download PDF (2.9MB)

Contents

• Director's introduction
• Crime and justice statistics
• 1. Recorded crime
• 2. Selected crime profiles
• 3. Crime victimisation
• 4. Selected offender profiles
• 5. Criminal courts
• 6. Corrections
• 7. Criminal justice resources
• References