Latest crime statistics give unique insights into victims and alleged offenders

MEDIA RELEASE

Embargo: 9:00AM Thursday 29 September 2016

Latest crime statistics give unique insights into victims and alleged offenders

 
The Crime Statistics Agency has today released its recorded crime statistics for Victoria for the year ending 30 June 2016.

The statistics show the counts and demographic characteristics of unique people recorded by police as alleged offenders and victims.

In the year ending 30 June 2016 there were 246,106 victims and 81,918 alleged offenders recorded by Victoria Police, with both counts increasing over the past 12 months.

Crime Statistics Agency Chief Statistician Fiona Dowsley said that while the total number of unique offenders has increased in the last 12 months, there was a drop in the number of recorded offenders under the age of 25.

`Over the last year we have seen a 4 per cent drop in the number of offenders under 25, with the greatest change seen amongst 15 to 19 year old offenders which dropped by 5 per cent’ Ms Dowsley said. 

Although the number of offenders under 25 decreased, these offenders were involved in more incidents on average compared to the rest of the offending population.

`Our statistics show that on average, offenders under 25 were involved in 2.4 incidents per offender compared to the overall average of 2.0 incidents per offender.’

The recorded crime statistics also show that there were 535,826 offences recorded by Victoria Police in the year to June 2016, up 13.4% compared to the same period last year. The crime rate was 8,851.7 offences per 100,000 people, an increase of 11.2%.

There were 78,012 family related incidents recorded in 2015–16, up by 10% compared to the same time last year.

Further information, including Local Government Area data, can be found in the latest crime statistics quarterly release, available to download from the CSA website:

http://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/home/crime-statistics/latest-crime-data/