Record number of criminal offenders in Victoria, data reveals

One in every 78 Victorians is an alleged offender, the highest level since records have been kept.

Almost 85,000 unique alleged offenders were booked during the year ending June, data reveals. Picture: Getty Images

Victoria has recorded its highest number of criminals in 15 years, with one offender identified for every 78 people in the state last year, amid a rise in offences being reported.

Criminal incidents across the state rose 1.3 per cent to 387,389 in 2018-19, according to figures from the Crime Statistics Agency.

However, the per-capita rate of crime has fallen slightly to its lowest level since 2005, and the per-capita victim rate also dropped 2.9 per cent, to 2,832.4 per 100,000 population. This means approximately one in every 33 people in Victoria fell victim to crime last year.

Victoria Police deputy commissioner Shane Patton said there was a decrease in the crime rate due to an increasing population, but added the breaching of bail and court orders was “significantly driving a lot of our crime”.

“We’ve had an increase of 8.1 per cent — or 5754 offences — in this category,” Mr Patton said.

“That’s the highest level we’ve had in this category since we’ve kept data in our law enforcement assistance program.”

The per-capita rate of crime fell by 0.8 per cent to 5873.5 per 100,000 Victorians last year.

The number of assaults and other related crimes rose by 3.3 per cent, theft was up 3.9 per cent and a 9.7 per cent increase in stalking, harassment and related offences was also recorded.

Of the 84,989 “unique alleged offenders” recorded last year, nearly a third were involved in a family violence incident and 25,627 of them had assault or a related crime listed as their principal offence — a rise of 6.8 per cent on the previous year.

Those born in Australia accounted for 70.1 per cent of offenders. New Zealand-born offenders accounted for 2.2 per cent, while those born in Sudan and South Sudan continue to be over-represented, making up 1.1 per cent of all offenders.

Incidents primarily involving drugs have risen 8.7 per cent across the state.

There was a large fall — of 11 per cent — in the number of burglaries and break and enters, which reached its lowest level since 2004.

Police Minister Lisa Neville said there were youths committing multiple crimes before being caught, and they “seem not to care”.

"There's a small core group of youths who continue to commit serious and regular crimes," Ms Neville said.

Mr Patton said police have also seen new teenage offenders being involved in “high impact, high harm crimes”.

“A lot of them are repeat offenders unfortunately, but we’ve also seen some new emerging offenders … who have escalated straight from nothing (on their criminal record) and committed very high impact, high harm crimes,” he said.

Despite this, the average age of offenders rose to 34.2 for men and 33.2 for women.

This could be a reflection of a 5.8 per cent rise in family violence incidents last year. Those 57,366 incidences made up 14.8 per cent of all criminal incidents recorded.