Media releases

4 March 2012 - Crime falling across Australia

Crime falling across Australia

4 March 2012

Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Justice Jason Clare today released the Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC) annual report into crime trends which shows the crime rates continue to fall across most major categories.

“This is a good result for law enforcement agencies across the country, but we still have a lot more work to do – the recent shootings are proof of that,” Mr Clare said.

“That’s why a couple of weeks ago I announced that the Australian Crime Commission would conduct a National Intelligence Assessment of the illegal firearm market and its links to gang activity in Australia.

“The Federal Government and State and Territory Governments are also working together on nationally consistent legislation to tackle criminal organisations.”

The key statistics in the AIC’s Australian Crime: Facts and Figures report are:

Break-ins have been cut by about half since 1996;
Car theft has dropped by about 61 per cent over the past decade;
The overall number of violent crimes decreased in 2010 except for the offence of kidnapping and abduction;
Of the five categories of violent crime, four recorded a drop in the number of victims between 2009 and 2010 – homicide, assault, sexual assault and robbery;
The most common weapon used in homicide in 2009–10 was a knife. Knives were involved in 39 per cent of all homicides;
Firearms used in 13 per cent of all homicides;
There has been a 27 per cent drop in the number of homicides between 1996 and 2010, with a drop of 11 per cent between 2009 and 2010;
The homicide rate is 1.2 per 100,000 population;
The number of victims of robbery in 2010 is the lowest on record since 1996, with 14,582 victims. Robbery victim numbers peaked in 2001 with 26,591 victims;
Murder and sexual assault occurred most frequently within residential settings - 61 percent of murders occurred in a residential dwelling and 63 percent of sexual assaults occurred in a residential dwelling;
Assault rates decreased from 801 per 100,000 people in 2009 to 766 per 100,000 in 2010;
In 2010, there were 17,757 recorded sexual assaults, down from 18,807 the previous year;
The rate of fraud victimisation dropped by 11 per cent from 2009 to 2011 and, since peaking in 1998-99, has declined by 35 per cent;
In 2009–10, the offending rate for people aged 15 to 19 years was almost four times the rate for all other offenders (6,751 compared with 1,821 offenders per 100,000);
In 2009–10, 2,767 arrests involving heroin were made – an 81 percent decrease in arrests over the past decade;
In 2009–10, cannabis accounted for the highest number of drug-related arrests with 57,170 arrests - an increase of three percent from 2008–09; and
In 2009-10 the number of cocaine arrests increased by 47 per cent rising to 1,244 from 848 in 2008-09 but cocaine arrests remain lower than for any other drug type.

This annual publication is compiled from information provided by sources in each state and territory, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The full report can be accessed online at www.aic.gov.au and a summary of the report’s findings is attached.

Crime in Australia

Types of crime:

Property crime:

All categories of property crime dropped in 2010 with break-ins and car theft has been cut by around half since 1996;
In 2010, motor vehicle theft experienced the largest percentage decrease in victims compared with the other two categories of property crime - decreasing by 8 percent from the previous year;
Break-ins and burglaries decreased by 46 per cent since 1996;
Overall, the category of ‘other’ theft has decreased by 26 percent since 2003.

Violent crime:

Of the five categories of violent crime, four recorded a drop in the number of victims between 2009 and 2010 – homicide, assault, sexual assault and robbery;
The number of victims of robbery in 2010 is the lowest on record since 1996, with 14,582 victims. Robbery victim numbers peaked in 2001 with 26,591 victims;
The number of victims of kidnappings/abductions increased between 2009 and 2010 by 39 people but represents a 23 per cent decrease since a peak in 2008;
Since 1996, assault has been the category of violent crime with the greatest number of victims annually. In 2010, 171,083 people were the victim of assault in Australia;
Sexual assault victim numbers have been decreasing since 2008, by approximately four percent per year;

Fraud and money crime:

In 2009–10, the rate of fraud victimisation was 383 per 100,000 population an 11 percent decrease since 2008–09;
Since peaking in 1998-99 at 593 per 100,000 population, the rate of fraud has fallen by 35 percent or about three percent per year;
Fraud on credit and charge cards has increased by 70 percent since 2006, increasing from 36.93 cents per $1,000 transacted in 2006 to 62.81 cents per $1,000 transacted in 2010;
The rate of cheque fraud in 2010 remained consistent with the 2009 figure, at 1.25 cents per $1,000 transacted; and
The prevalence of credit and charge card fraud in the years reviewed was substantially greater than cheque and debit card fraud.

Drugs:

In 2009–10, the number of cocaine arrests increased by 47 percent, rising from 848 in 2008–09 to 1,244. Despite this, the overall number of cocaine arrests remained lower than for any other drug type throughout the period;
A smaller proportion of females than males were arrested as providers of drugs across all categories of drugs;
Females were more likely to be arrested for providing heroin than any other drug - 24 percent of providers arrested on heroin charges were female; and
The proportion of males arrested for providing ranged from 76 percent for heroin, to 83 percent for cannabis and 89 percent for cocaine-related offences.

Cyber crime:

In 2010, there was a substantial increase in the number of notifications received by AusCERT of a compromised website – 255 per cent;
Since 2008, the number of notifications related to compromised accounts has been in decline, falling below 5,000 notifications in 2010;
The majority of notifications for websites received by AusCERT in 2010 were for commercial com.au domains. AusCERT received 13,592 notifications relating to com.au sites, of which 96 percent related to compromised website activity; and
In 2010, the least number of notifications (213) received by AusCERT related to government gov.au domains than any other Australian domain address.

Locations of crime:

The number of violent crimes that occurred in dwellings and on the street/footpath decreased;
Since 2007 the number of violent crimes occurring on the street or footpath has decreased by approximately four percent per year;
Between 2009 and 2010, the number of violent crimes occurring in recreational settings decreased by six percent;
The most number of burglaries and break ins took place in residential dwellings with the next most common place being retail locations;
In 2010, property crimes most commonly occurred in retail (31%) residential (29%) and street/footpath (13%);
Property offences were least likely to occur in recreational (4%), transport (6%) and other (11%) settings;

Victims of crime:

Six percent of female respondents to the ABS’ Crime Victimisation survey reported experiencing sexual assault in 2009–10 compared with one percent of male respondents;
Although the greatest proportion of males experienced physical assault in their own home (20%) compared with any other location, males were almost as likely to be assaulted at work or at a place of study, on the street or at a place of entertainment (19% of assaults each);
Nine percent of male respondents reported experiencing physical assault in a home other than their own;
In 2009–10, work or place of study was the only category where a higher proportion of males were threatened with assault (29%), compared with 19 percent who were victims of actual physical assault;
The majority of female assault victims reported experiencing assault in their own home - 39 percent reported incidents of physical assault, while 32 percent reported being threatened with assault;
The smallest proportion of female respondents reported experiencing physical assault at a place of entertainment (7%), while the smallest proportion reported being threatened with assault at a home other than their own (5%);
29 percent of female respondents reported being threatened with assault in the workplace or place of study, compared with 16 percent who experienced actual physical assault;
A high proportion of both male and female respondents reported receiving threats of assault over the phone (72% and 50% respectively);
More female respondents (47%) reported receiving a threat by SMS compared with male respondents (20%);
Only five percent of male respondents and three percent of female respondents reported receiving a threat of assault in writing;
13 percent of male and 17 percent of female respondents did report receiving threats via email.

Offenders:

The rate of offending increased in the 2009–10 for persons aged 10–14 years by 12 percent;
In 2009–10, the offending rate for persons aged 20–24 years was 3,343 per 100,000 population;
People aged over 25 years offended at a rate of 1,081 per 100,000 – slightly lower than other age groups;
For most crimes, the greatest volumes of offenders were aged 18 and 19 years old.
The peak offending age was slightly lower for theft and related offences, with the majority of offenders aged 16 years old;
The offending rate of males aged 10–14 years saw the greatest percentage increase of any age group – 13 per cent;
Between 1996–97 and 2009–10, the male offending rate for assault increased by 18 percent;
Rates of female offending remained highest in the offence category of ‘other’ theft in 2009–10;
The rate of juveniles committing assaults has risen by 67 percent since 1996–97;
The largest proportion of adult police detainees had attained either a Year 10 level education or less;
In 2010, more male (19%) than female (15%) adult detainees had completed TAFE;
More females (14% compared with 13%) had a university or TAFE education that was not completed;
Twenty percent of adult male detainees’ and 18 percent of adult female detainees’ highest level of education was Year 11 or 12.
Welfare and government benefits were the main source of non-crime generated income for both male and female adult detainees in 2010, nominated by 56 percent of males and 81 percent of females;
More males than females reported having a non-crime generated source of income that involved a full-time job (33% compared with 10% respectively);
In 2010, seven percent of female and eight percent of male adult detainees obtained income from superannuation and savings;
Female detainees were most likely to draw crime-generated income from shoplifting (10%) and drug dealing/other drug crimes (6%); and
The main source of crime-generated income among males was from drug dealing/other drug crimes (6%), and other types of income-generating crimes (5%).

Media contact: Korena Flanagan - 02 6277 7290