Victorian crime statistics: robberies, thefts rise
VICTORIA’S crime epidemic continues to rise as the latest statistics show robberies have increased by a shocking 20 per cent.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Weapons rampant in Vic schools
- Youth crime victims forced to live in terror
- PANAHI: We’re in trouble: Time for new approach
- Photos released in hunt for Bolt attackers
- Jewellers count cost of violent robberies
VICTORIA’S crime epidemic continues to rise as the latest statistics show robberies have increased by a shocking 20 per cent.
Crime in Victoria overall has increased by four per cent in 12 months despite hopes the law and order crisis was easing.
New Crime Statistics Agency figures show a total 543,391 offences for the year ending March 31, 2017, up from 522,677 offences the year before.
The rise has been attributed to increases in property and deception offences.
Property and deception made up almost two in three of Victoria’s total offences and was up 4.5 per cent in 12 months.
The most startling upward trends included dangerous and negligent acts endangering people (up 20.2 per cent), theft (up 9.3 per cent), justice procedures (up 20 per cent) and transport regulation offences (up 58.4 per cent).
Among the worst was robbery with an extra 540 offences committed, an increase of 19.6 per cent.
Thieves snatching mobile phones in public areas was a key driver with almost 800 devices stolen.
A spate of terrifying jewellery store raids had also pushed up the figure.
There were 25 such attacks between June last year and March.
Around 30 offenders had been caught.
Murder was up 27.7 per cent and attempted murder increased by 67.35 per cent, but the sharp rise was attributed to the Bourke St tragedy.
Offender incidents were up 10.1 per cent with almost one in three offenders aged between 20 and 29 while victim reports increased by 7.6 per cent.
A handful of Local Government Areas showed high increases in the number of offences committed since March 2016.
Ararat had the highest offences rate, up 11.6 per cent, followed by Latrobe (up 7 per cent), Greater Shepparton (up 6.3 per cent), Yarra (up 1.8 per cent) and Melbourne (up 0.8 per cent).
Police and the government pointed to reductions in key offence categories over the most recent quarter of data as signs of a turnaround in Victoria’s crime wave.
Theft of motor vehicles fell 14.1 per cent in the quarter compared with the previous three months.
Theft from vehicles dipped 19 per cent and aggravated burglaries were down 4 per cent.
But the categories were still up year-on-year.
Deputy Commissioner Wendy Steendam said a record 181,000 people were arrested over the last 12 months.
“While crime is still up we appear to be actually turning the corner,’’ Ms Steendam said.
“We are getting on top of the crime rate and this is the second quarter showing that we’re slowing the growth — particularly in relation to theft reduction.
“We are confident that we will continue to see the crime rate drop in the next quarter.”
Since May last year police made more than 615 arrests for aggravated burglaries, home invasions and carjackings.
In the last 10 weeks there had been 38 arrests in the North West Metro police region alone for home invasions.
Since new laws were introduced on December 7 last year there had been 34 home invasion offences and three for attempted home invasions.
There had been 20 carjackings and 25 attempted carjackings.
Aggravated burglaries accounted for about 8 per cent of all burglary and break and enter offences with about 350 involving a weapon.
The annual number of aggravated burglaries jumped 28 per cent with 4280 offences recorded.
Dangerous driving offences were up around 60 per cent over the year with 83 per cent occurring during police pursuits.
Offences for resisting and hindering police, also relating to pursuits, jumped 27 per cent.
Police Minister Lisa Neville said $3 billion had been provided to Victoria Police over the last three years.
The force had also be given greater powers and new laws introduced to stamp out crime and tighten bail.
“What we are seeing is Victoria Police starting to turn around that six-year trend in offending that we had seen in Victoria,’’ Ms Neville said.
“We are heading in the right direction — this is not about spin.
“Nobody is taking the focus off this issue from every police officer out on the street who are doing these arrests, who are targeting the high volume crime and these high-harm crimes, to the government investing in additional police.
“This is absolutely about reducing the crime rate.
“We are in the right direction. These are not just the high volume crimes but we’re seeing improvements in the high harm crimes as well and that is what we want to see.”
Family incidents also increased by 1.6 per cent with Crime Statistics Agency Chief Statistician Fiona Dowsley stating the rate was beginning to stabilise.
“In the last 12 months the rate of family incidents in Victoria increased by 0.1%, compared to the previous year when the rate increased by 8%,” she said.
“In many local areas across the state we have seen reductions in family incident rates.
“Out of the 79 Local Government Areas across Victoria, almost half of them (43 per cent) showed decreases (in) family incident rates in the last 12 months.”
Drug dealing and trafficking was down by 11.4 per cent, from 5360 offences to 4749.
The figures come off the back of record high crime levels statewide.
Previous data showed offences surged 10 per cent last calendar year.
READ MORE:
Drop in uniformed police numbers blamed for Victorian crime wave, state Opposition claims
Melbourne crime wave: Influx of 300 police recruits to combat crisis
Former Police Chief Commissioner Kelvin Glare urges action on Victoria’s crime wave
