Crime Statistics Victoria

Crime Statistics Victoria 1

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Contents

Introduction

1. Recorded offences

1.1 Key movements in the number and rate of offences

24 month trend testing

1.2 Number of recorded offences by the type of offence

1.3 Regional profile

1.4 Investigation status

2. Alleged offender incidents

2.1 Key movements in the number and rate of alleged offender incidents

2.2 Sex and age of alleged offenders

2.3 Number of alleged offender incidents by principal offence category

2.4 Investigation status

3. Victim reports

3.1 Key movements in the number and rate of victim reports

3.2 Sex and age of victims

3.3 Number of victim reports by principal offence category

4. Family incidents

4.1. Key movements in the number and rate of family incidents

4.2. Demographic characteristics of affected family members

4.3. Demographic characteristics of other parties

5. Spotlight: Deception offences in Victoria

5.1 Introduction and scope

5.2 Prevalence of deception offences

5.3 Trends over time

5.4 Deception offences across Victoria

5.5 Type of location where deception offences occur

5.6 Modes of deception

5.7 Outcome of deception offences

5.8 Victim reports

5.9 Alleged offender incidents

Appendix 1. Explanatory notes

Data source

Scope and coverage

Comparisons between Victoria Police and Crime Statistics Agency statistics

Offence categories

Reference periods

Reference periods based on the date records are created

Counting methodology

Offences recorded

Victim reports

Alleged offender incidents

Family incidents

Principal variable calculations

Principal Offence

Location type

Relationship of victim to alleged offender

Regional statistics

Rates per 100,000 population

24 month trend test

Confidentialisation

Legislative changes significantly affecting recorded crime statistics

Abbreviations used in the data

Revisions

Additional data

Appendix 2. Glossary

Appendix 3. Police Service Areas and Local Government Areas in Victoria by Police Regions

Appendix 4. Offences recorded by offence categories – Oct 2010 to Sept 2015

Appendix 5. Offence rate per 100,000 population by offence categories – Oct 2010 to Sept 2015

Introduction

This publication presents data on crime reported to, or detected by, Victoria Police from October 2010 to September 2015, with a focus on the 12 months from 1October 2014 to 30September 2015.

Data was extracted from the Victoria Police Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) database on 18 October 2015.

The publication presents an overview of:

• Offences recorded;
• Alleged offender incidents;
• Victim reports; and
• Family incidents.

This report highlights the throughput of offences, offenders and victims, rather than counts of unique people who come into contact with police. Unique offender and victim counts are available in the CSA annual report, which was released on 1 October 2015.

The CSA would like to acknowledge the staff and officers from Victorian Police who assisted in the compilation of statistics for this publication.

1. Recorded offences

The offences outlined in this section represent all offences recorded in the Victoria Police Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) database between October 2010 and September 2015, where Victoria Police have recorded a crime prohibited by criminal law. These offences include crimes that have been reported to police as well as those identified by police. For the purposes of reporting, each specific offence belongs to a broader offence category which is used to describe and summarise each offence type.

1.1Key movements in the number and rate of offences

In the year ending 30 September 2015, there were 482,959 offences recorded by Victoria Police, an increase of6.0% from 455,728 offences in the previous year. This resulted in an offence rate of 8,115.5 offences per 100,000 people in Victoria, an increase of 4.0% from the year ending 30 September 2014.

Over the past 5 years, the offence rate per 100,000 people in Victoria has been steadily increasing, with an average annual increase of 4.0%.

Victorian offence rate per 100,000 population, October 2010 to September 2015

24 month trend testing

The CSA uses a 24 month trend test on each offence subdivision and Local Government Area tohighlight changes that are statistically significant. The CSA uses the Kendall’s Rank Order Correlation statistical test (or Kendall‘s tau-b) to determine whether a series is trending upwards, downwards or has been stable over the two years.

The following table outlines the offence categories which had statistically significant movements from October 2013 to September 2015. All other offence categories remained stable during this period as indicated by the trend test. For more information on the trend test please see the Explanatory notes and for the full data set, please see the Offences data tables.

1.2Number of recorded offences by the type of offence

Victorian offences recorded by offence category, October 2012 to September 2015

In the year ending 30 September 2015, the number of offences within the category of Crimes against the person increased by 4.6% (3,088 offences) from the year ending September 2014. This was driven by an increase in Stalking, harassment and threatening behaviour of 9.4% (1,038 offences). Sexual offences also increased by 9.2% (974 offences) contributing to the overall increase in this category. Assault offences continue to be the largest offence type in this category, making up over half (54.6%) of all Crimes against the person offences with 38,336 offences recorded.

The number of Property and deception offencesincreased by 3.7% (10,276 offences) in the year ending 30 September 2015. There was a statistically significant upwards trend in Bribery offences with 45 offences recorded between October 2014 and September 2015. Although this movement was statistically significant, the number of offences recorded in previous years was very low and is therefore producing a high percentage increase. Theft offences increased by 5.6% (8,359 offences) to 157,503 offences and made up 55.1% of all Property and deception offences.

A statistically significant increase in Drug use and possession offences (16.9%,3,260 offences) drove the overall rise in Drug offences (16.7%, 4,261 offences). Drug use and possession offences made up three quarters of the total Drug offences (75.8%, 22,542 offences).

Between September 2014 and 2015, there was an increase of 20.2% in the number of Justice procedures offences recorded (9,866 offences). This was largely driven by a 20.2% (8,558 offences) increase in the number of Breaches of orders offences. Due to the introduction of new offence codes under amendments to the Bail Act 1977, which came into effect in December 2013, there have been significant increases in Breaches of orders offences in the past three quarters. Additionally, in April 2013, another two new offence codes for breaches of family violence orders came into effect under amendments to the Family Violence Protection Act 2008. Although the number of Breaches of orders offences has increased, the increase in these new codes has begun to slow in the year ending 30 September 2015.

Recorded offences for Breaches of orders, October 2010 to September 2015

1.3 Regional profile

Between the year ending 30 September 2014 and 2015, there was an increase in the number of offences recorded in Victoria across all police regions. The Eastern and Western regions increased by 3.3% and 8.6% respectively, and theNorth West Metro and Southern Metro regions increased by 4.4% and 9.5% respectively.

Offences recorded by Victorian Police Region, October 2012 to September 2015

The increase in offences was fairly evenly dispersed across police regions in 2015. Across all four regions, Property and deception offences accounted for the majority of all offences.

Further information on the number and types of offences by Local Government Area is available in our Crime by location tool.

1.4 Investigation status

As at 18 October 2015, 28.5% of offences in the category ofCrimes against the person had resulted in an Arrest (20,013 offences). 24.5% of offences had resulted in a Summons (17,216 offences) and 15.8% remained unsolved (11,087 offences). Another 22.1% (15,561 offences) had been actioned as an Intent to summons and the remaining 9.1% (6,384 offences) resulted in either a Caution/Official warning, Penalty Infringement Notice or Other outcome.

The majority of Property and deception offences (63.4%, 181,046 offences) remained unsolved as at 18 October 2015, and 21.6% (61,704 offences) had resulted in an Arrest.

63.7% of Drug offences resulted in an Arrest while the next most common outcome was a Caution/Official warning (16.7%, 4,953 offences).

Public order and security offences were most likely to result in a Penalty Infringement Notice (38.9%, 14,416 offences), followed by an Arrest (31.6%, 11,697 offences).

As at 18 October 2015, just over half of allJustice procedures offenceshad resulted in an Arrest (51.1%, 29,948 offences) while 28.9% of offences had resulted in a Summons (16,932 offences).

Offences recorded by offence category and outcome, October 2014 to September 2015

Crime Statistics Victoria 1

2. Alleged offender incidents

An alleged offender incident is an incident involving one or more offences to which an individual, business or organisation has been linked as an alleged offender. An alleged offender incident represents one alleged offender but may involve multiple victims and offences. One incident may involve offences that occur over a period of time but if processed by Victoria Police as one incident, it will have a count of 1 in the data presented in this section.

There may be multiple incidents within the reference period that involve the same individual, business or organisation. If there are multiple alleged offenders related to a criminal event, each will have their alleged offender incident counted once in the figures.

Where there were multiple offences recorded within the one incident, the incident is assigned an offence category of the most serious offence in the incident, known as the principal offence.

2.1 Key movements in the number and rate of alleged offender incidents

In the year ending 30 September 2015 there were 164,941 alleged offender incidents. This represented an increase of 6.8% (10,496 incidents) from the previous year.

The offender rate increased by 4.8%, from 2,643.9incidents per 100,000 people in Victoria in the year ending 30 September 2014 to 2,771.6 in the year ending 30 September 2015.

Alleged offender incidents, October 2010 to September 2015

2.2 Sex and age of alleged offenders

Of the 164,941 alleged offender incidents recorded in the year ending 30 September 2015, 164,914 alleged offenders were people while 27 were organisations.

In the same year there were 132,068 incidents involving a male offender, making up 80.1% of all person offenders. 32,493 alleged offenders were female, making up 19.7% of person offenders. The remaining 0.2% had an unknown sex.

Alleged offenders by sex and age, October 2014 to September 2015

The number of offender incidents involving a male increased in the year ending 30 September 2015 by 6.1% (7,593 incidents) from the previous year. Incidents involving a female offender increasedby9.6% (2,854 incidents) from the previous year.

Male offenders between 15 and 29 years of age accounted for just underhalf of all male offenders in the year ending 30 September 2015 (47.9% or 63,207 incidents). The same age cohort made up 46.4% (15,061 incidents) of all female offenders.

2.3Number of alleged offender incidents by principal offence category

In order to best represent the type of offence associated with an incident involving multiple offences, the most serious offence within an incident is determined and this becomes the principal offence to represent the incident.

By principal offence, the category that made up the largest proportion of offender incidents was Property and deception offences. These offences made up 35.0%(57,660 incidents) of all offender incidents, which was a4.3% (2,363 incidents) increase from the previous year.

Alleged offender incidents by principal offence, October 2012 to September 2015

In the past 3 years, the number of alleged offender incidents with a principal offence of Crimes against the person has been steadily increasing. In 2015, Crimes against the person made up 26.3% of all offender incidents.

Similarly, incidents with a principal offence of Drug offences have increased in the past 3 years to the current level of 15,598 incidents. This offence division made up 9.5% of all offender incidents.

Offender incidents with a principal offence category ofJustice procedures offencesrose sharply in the past 3 years to 24,469 in the year ending 30 September 2015. This was driven by increases in incidents involving a breach of bail conditions and those involving a breach of family violence order. In December 2013, two new offence codes came into effect resulting in a large increase in the number of breach of bail conditions incidents. Additionally, in October 2013, two new offence codes for breaches of family violence orders came into effect leading to an increase in these incidents.

2.4Investigation status

As at 18 October 2015,just over a third(36.8% or 60,699) of all offender incidents created in the year ending 30 September 2015 resulted in an Arrest, while 44,217 (26.8%) resulted in a Summons and 32,523 (19.7%) in an Intent to Summons. 10,486 (6.4%) offender incidents led to a Caution or Official warning being issued.

An Intent to Summons is an interim investigation status and is not necessarily the final outcome of an incident. As the data is captured at a point in time, the investigation status of each incident is subject to change.

Alleged offender incidents by status of investigation, October 2014 to September 2015

Other includes: Not authorised, notice to appear, presentment, warrant issued and other statuses

Crime Statistics Victoria 1

3. Victim reports

A victim report is counted when an individual, business or organisation reports that they have been a victim of one or more criminal offences to Victoria Police and a record is made in LEAP. A victim report involves only one victim but can involve multiple offences and alleged offenders.One report may involve offences that occur over a period of time but if processed by Victoria Police as one report it will have a count of 1 in the data presented in this section.

An individual, business or organisation can be counted as a victim more than once within the reference period.If there are multiple victims related to a criminal event, each will have their victim report counted once in the figures.

Where there were multiple offences recorded within the one victim report, the report is represented by an assigned offence category of the most serious offence, this is known as the principal offence.

3.1 Key movements in the number and rate of victim reports

In the year ending 30 September 2015, there were 289,092 reports from victims recorded by Victoria Police. This represented an increase of 2.5% (7,079 victim reports) from the previous year.

The victimisation rate increased by 0.6% from 4,827.6 reports per 100,000 people in the year ending 30 September 2014 to 4,857.8 in 2015.

Victim reports,October 2010 to September 2015

3.2 Sex and age of victims

In the year ending 30 September 2015, 212,571 victims were people and 76,521 victims were businesses or organisations.

The section below outlines the demographic characteristics where the victim is a person and where this information was recorded by Victoria Police.

Of the 205,569 victim reports where a sex was recorded, 55.5% (114,123) involved a male victim while 44.5% (91,446) involved a female victim.

In the year ending 30 September 2015, the average age for victims was 39.0years, up slightly from 38.7 in the previous year.Across both male and female victims, the age group with the highest number of reports was 25 – 29 years. This age group accounted for 12.6% of all person victim reports (26,788 reports).

The average age for male victims was 39.7 years and the average age for females was 37.9 years. There were more male victims than female in every age group except for the 10 – 14 years and 15 – 19 years, where there were more female victims.

Victim reports by age group and sex by,October 2014 to September 2015

Patterns of age are similar between men and women who made a victim report with Victoria Police, however, female victims are concentrated in the younger age groups with 21.5% of female victims below 25 years of age compared to 17.3% of males. There were more male victims in the older age groups than females, with 35.3% of males aged 45 and over compared with 30.8% of women.

Males were more likely to be a victim of a Property and deception offence, making up 57.2% (89,837) of the victim reports in this category. Females were more likely to be a victim of a Crime against the person, making up 52.2% (28,706) of this category.

3.3Number of victim reports by principal offence category

In order to assign an offence type to a victim report with multiple offences, the most serious offence within a report is determined and this becomes the principal offence for the victim report.

Of the 289,092 victim reports in the year ending 30 September 2015, 233,265 (80.7%) had a principal offence of Property and deception offences, 55,356 reports (19.1%) were Crimes against the person and Other offences made up only 0.2% of all victim reports.

Proportion of all victim reports by offence category,October 2010 to September 2015

The proportion of victim reports by principal offence has remained relatively stable over the past five years.

Between October 2010 and September 2013 the proportion of victim reports with a principal offence of Crimes against the personincreased slightly from 16.4% of all victim reports to 19.3%. In the year ending 30 September 2014 the proportion of reports for Crimes against the person dropped slightly to 19.1% of all victim reports and remained at that level from October to September 2015.