Offences including robbery, harassment on the rise in Victoria

Robbery and harassment are among the offences to have increased in Victoria in the past year, with a record number of alleged offenders accused of committing a crime.

One in every 78 Victorians were accused of committing crime in the past year.

The Crime Statistics Agency’s latest data report shows a total of 387,389 criminal incidents were recorded in the year to June 2019 — a 1.3 per cent jump on the previous year.

However the rate per 100, 000 population had dropped by 0.8 per cent.

Among the criminal incidents to have jumped include robbery, stalking, harassment, theft, deception, drug use, weapons offences and breaches of orders.

The data also shows police have nabbed a record number of alleged offenders.

There were 84,989 unique alleged offenders, which is equal to one in every 78 Victorians.

The average offender age is the highest it has been since the CSA began recording data 15 years ago.

The average age of male unique alleged offenders is 34.2, compared to women who are aged 33.2 on average.

Men represent two-thirds of overall unique alleged offenders and they are more likely to be involved in multiple criminal incidents.

And people aged 25 to 29 are over-represented in the category, accounting for 14.4 per cent of all unique alleged offenders.

Stalking offences were also on the rise. Generic image

Victoria Police Deputy Commisioner Shane Patton said increases in shop stealing — or swarming — were a high priority.

“We’ve recently seen a lot of publicity … where we have seen youth go in en masse,” he said.

“We realise we need to do more and we are. It’s a significant issue.

“That’s an area of focus for us moving forward.”

About one in every 33 people in Victoria were victims of crime in the year to June 2019.

Males make up 56.2 per cent (104,820) of all victims, compared to females (81,783).

Girls aged 10 to 14 were the most likely group to be repeatedly offended against.

Of the 1,896 girls in that age group, 11 per cent (209 victims) had more than one victim report recorded in the reference period.

Family-related incidents jumped by 8.6 per cent in the year, to 82,652 incidents.

Melbourne had the highest criminal incident rate and highest recorded offences.

Dep Comm Patton applauded the work of frontline officers but said it was concerning police and their vehicles were being targeted at an alarming rate.

“I think we’re talking about, over the past year in terms of rammings of police vehicles, we’re talking about one every day that has been virtually occurring,” he said.

Robbery is among the crimes on the rise across Melbourne.

“They’re not Crime Statistics Agency stats but we know that that’s happening on a daily basis that we’re seeing our police vehicles rammed.

“It has been rising, yes. And it’s frightening, really.”

The number of offences Victoria Police recorded also jumped 1.5 per cent to 506,759, compared with the same period in 2018.

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Dangerous and negligent acts, property damage and burglary incidents had dropped over the past two years.

The Coalition said the latest crime statistics release showed offences were up.

Police Minister Lisa Neville said a multi-agency approach was necessary when dealing with youth offenders.

“The problem is that we then have this small group of youth offenders who continue to commit serious and regular crimes,” she said

“There’s a number of things we have put in place.

“This is the first time we’ve got everyone at the table - from police to schools to the justice system.”

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