By Angus Delaney
Crime has reached the highest level on record in Victoria, driven by a surge in people stealing from cars and stores amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Youth crime also hit a 15-year peak and domestic violence reached a record high over the past year, according to the latest data from the Crime Statistics Agency.
Criminal incidents have hit the highest level since the Crime Statistics Agency started tracking numbers in 2004.Credit: Paul Rovere
Over the 12 months to September, there were 578,762 individual crimes recorded, up 13.4 per cent on the previous year, and more than 431,683 criminal incidents (a single incident can include multiple criminal offences), a record high.
However, criminal incidents have been higher per capita in previous years, including in 2020, 2019 and 2016. Victoria’s population has boomed over the past year, growing by 2.7 per cent to more than 7 million.
Theft increased the most over the past year, with nearly 14,000 more incidents of items stolen from cars compared with 2023, and nearly 10,000 more incidents of retail store theft, which jumped 36.6 per cent on last year.
Other theft offences also increased, including petrol theft, which police said is a clear sign of people becoming desperate in the current cost-of-living crisis.
Police say increases in grocery and alcohol theft have been driven by people struggling during the cost-of-living crisis.Credit: Louie Douvis
“With inflation, cost-of-living pressures and high interest rates, it’s driving record levels of alcohol and grocery theft,” said Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Neil Paterson.
“Meat, fresh produce, cosmetics, vitamins are among the most common items stolen.”
Motor vehicle theft rose to 25,773 offences, the highest level since 2003.
Paterson said theft often increased over the holidays, and he encouraged people to “make sure they’re locking doors to their houses and motor vehicles too”.
Premier Jacinta Allan said it was clear the cost of living was having an impact on the jump in crime, and said the government’s focus was “always on supporting victims of crime”.
Opposition crime prevention and police spokesperson Brad Battin said the spike in crime was due to the government cutting the community crime prevention budget and failing to come to an agreement with the police union over a new enterprise bargaining agreement.
“The Allan Labor government is doing nothing to solve the frontline policing crisis,” said Battin.
Paterson said Victoria Police had about “1000 vacancies”.
Crimes committed by children hit a 15-year high, with 23,810 recorded incidents in the past year – an increase of 16.9 per cent year-on-year. Victoria Police said children made up 10 per cent of total offenders but comprised a quarter of aggravated burglary and half of all robbery offenders.
Just 7310 children were behind the 23,810 crimes. The total number of children committing crimes dropped by 1.6 per cent from last year. But 103 children committed 30 or more offences in the past 12 months, nearly double last year’s figures for that category.
Paterson said any impact of the government’s new, tougher bail laws for youth offenders would not be reflected in this set of statistics, as they were implemented too late.
Domestic violence, which made headlines across the country this year, was up 10.4 per cent on last year.
There were more than 100,000 family violence incidents recorded in Victoria, the highest number on record. Police respond to a family-violence incident call every five minutes.
Paterson said there was traditionally a spike in reports over the Christmas and New Year period. “Sadly, this festive period is not a happy time for everyone.”
In the past year, Victoria Police arrested the most family violence perpetrators since 2005.
Crime Statistics Agency chief statistician Fiona Dowsley said domestic violence crimes were often committed with other offences, “contributing to the overall increase in family incident related offences”.
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