Key figures: Year to 31 December 2015

State wide figures
  • The number of offences recorded by police in the year to 31 December 2015 was 497,116. This is up 8.1% from 459,681 offences recorded in the same period last year.
  • Family incidents increased in the year to 31 December 2015, up 9.2% from 68,135 to 74,385.
  • There were 167,154 offender incidents recorded in the year to 31 December 2015, up 8.3% from 154,336 in the year to December 2014.
  • Victim reports increased in the year to 31 December by 7.1% to 298,641 victim reports.

 

Offence trends

Between the year ending December 2014 and 2015, the major offence categories that showed a significant upward trend were:

  • Assault and related offences (up 4.2% from 37,687 to 39,255)
  • Burglary/Break and enter offences (up 9.1% from 45,549 to 49,682)
  • Theft offences (up 11.0% from 147,802 to 164,109)
  • Drug dealing and trafficking offences (up 17.7% from 4,498 to 5,292)
  • Drug use and possession offences (up 16.5% from 19,765 to 23,020)
  • Weapons and explosives offences (up 17.1% from 13,478 to 15,779)
  • Public nuisance offences (up 15.8% from 2,579 to 2,987)
  • Justice procedures (up 39.3% from 6,517 to 9,079)
  • Breaches of orders (up 11.5% from 46,925 to 52,322)

Between the year ending December 2014 and 2015 one offence subdivision showed a significant downwards trend:

  • Disorderly and offensive conduct (down 14.5% from 20,966 to 17,928)

All other offence categories were stable.

 

Local Government Area level figures

The five Local Government Areas with the highest offence rates were:

  1. Melbourne (25,694.1 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, down 4.1%)
  2. Latrobe (17,862.0 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 10.0%)
  3. Horsham (14,768.3 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 20.4%)
  4. Yarra (14,654.0 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, down 1.1%)
  5. Greater Dandenong (12,783.1 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 18.7%)

 

For a detailed breakdown of the data, click to view the crime statistics quarterly release

For a breakdown of offences at the LGA level, click to access the CSA crime by location tool

For explanatory information and definitions for the latest release, see the explanatory notes and glossary