Key figures: Year to 31 March 2016

State wide figures
  • The number of offences recorded by police in the year to 31 March 2016 was 519,130. This is up 12.4% from 461,796 offences recorded in the same period last year.
  • Family incidents increased in the year to 31 March 2016, up 10.2% from 69,441 to 76,529.
  • There were 172,049 offender incidents recorded, up 11.2% from 154,763 in the year to March 2015.
  • Victim reports increased in the year to 31 March 2016 by 12.5% to 310,827 victim reports.

 

Offence trends

Between the year ending March 2015 and 2016, the major offence categories that showed the highest significant upward trends were:

  • Justice procedures offences (up 64.3% from 6,712 to 11,031)
  • Weapons and explosives offences (up 18.5% from 13,707 to 16,248)
  • Theft offences (up 16.1% from 147,688 to 171,531)
  • Transport regulation offences (up 13.9% from 462 to 526)
  • Burglary/break and enter offences (up 13.7% from 44,983 to 51,134)
  • Breaches of orders (up 13.4% from 49,608 to 56,261)
  • Drug use and possession offences (up 13.4% from 20,651 to 23,421)

 

Between the year ending March 2015 and 2016 one offence subdivision showed a significant downwards trend:

  • Disorderly and offensive conduct (down 15.6% from 20,530 to 17,328)

 

Local Government Area level figures

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

  1. Melbourne (25,088.1 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, down 2.7%)
  2. Latrobe (18,298.3 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 7.9%)
  3. Horsham (15,483.3 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 17.2%)
  4. Yarra (14,524.3 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 0.8%)
  5. Greater Dandenong (13,175.3 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 24.1%)

 

For a detailed breakdown of the data, click to view the crime statistics quarterly release (External link)

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

For explanatory information and definitions for the latest release, see the explanatory notes (External link) and glossary (External link)