Crime in Victoria increases by more than 6 per cent in the year to March 31
The state is grappling with a ‘wicked and complex’ problem with street gang knife crimes and a dramatic increase in domestic violence offences as overall crime rate spikes.
Police & Courts
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Crime is up significantly in Victoria with latest data showing a spike of more than 6 per cent of incidents recorded year-on-year.
The Crime Statistics Agency said the number of criminal incidents recorded by police in the year to March 31 was 409,841 — up 6.1 per cent on the previous 12 months.
The highest increases in crime over the past year occurred for the offences of theft, burglaries, breach of orders, property damage and drug possession.
Family violence spiked more than 5.8 per cent in the last year with 85,923 incidents, the highest figure the agency has ever recorded.
Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said police would do “everything” to address crime and was pleased more than 175,000 offenders had been processed, up 3.5 per cent on the previous year.
“We recognise these aren’t just figures, these are people,” he said.
“We have a number of strategies in place to deal with high harm, high impact crime. We are completely focused on trying to hold people to account.”
Police Minister Lisa Neville said high harm youth crime was a continued concern, particularly after Solomone “Solo” Taufeulungaki, 15, was ambushed by alleged thugs as he walked home from school on Tuesday.
“We need to make sure they are not able to kill each other, (they) are at home and at school,” she said.
“We all need to play a role in supporting young children who are committing serious offences.”
Commander Tim Hansen said knife crime among street gangs was a “wicked and complex” problem in Victoria that has been steadily increasing, close to 40 per cent, over the last five years.
“These attacks are killing our young people, our teenagers,” he said.
He said American gang culture “seems to be resonating” with groups across Melbourne’s suburbs.
“They purport to be brave, (but) when you examine their behaviour, they are anything but,” Commander Hansen said.
“This American gang culture seems to be resonating with groups across Melbourne.
“They seek to gain notoriety by this retail swarming activity, this brotherhood type image. In my experience, they’ll sell each other at the drop of a hat.”
Members of the Taufeulungaki family have today visited the site of his violent murder and paid tributes.
Police Minister Lisa Neville has described his alleged stabbing as a “terrible tragedy”.
“Too young to die,” Ms Neville said of his violent murder.
She has commended the bravery of his parents who discouraged retaliation.
“My thoughts are with them, their bravery in standing up (in saying) let’s not think about revenge has been a really important message,” Ms Neville said.
She responded to questions if Victoria had a gang problem.
“We have young people who get together, gang or otherwise, commit crimes together and cause harm to one another,” Ms Neville said.
“I don’t want to see 15 year olds dying on the streets. That is why we need police intervention to stop that and hold those to account. We also need families, communities to step up.”
Today’s crime figures show carjackings and home invasions are both up, with police saying often they were conducted by people who knew one another.
“It doesn’t diminish the offence, more than half of those (home invasions) are criminals on criminals,” Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said.
Ms Neville said the increase in crime could partially be attributed to the introduction of the Police Assistance Line and that more than 634,000 phone calls had been made to the non-urgent line since February last year, accounting for one in five of the state’s offences.
The modernisation of the force had given a “really significant, true picture” of the extent of crime throughout the state.
“People are reporting less serious crimes,” Ms Neville said.
She also said the reporting period encompassed the bushfire period where hundreds of police were deployed to East Gippsland.
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