4509.0 - Crime and Safety, Australia, Apr 2005  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/04/2006   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All

MEDIA RELEASE

April 26, 2006
Embargoed 11:30am (AEST)
35/2006

Household break-ins down 27%

The number of household break-ins are down more than a quarter (27%) on 2002 figures, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

An estimated 259,800 households were victims of at least one break-in during the 2005 reference period, down from 354,500 in 2002. Similarly, 44% fewer households were victims of motor vehicle theft in 2005, with 74,800 households having had at least one vehicle stolen, compared to 134,300 in 2002.

The publication Crime and Safety, Australia 2005 reports on selected types of household and personal crime, using information collected from people about their experiences of crime in the 12 months prior to the April survey.

The proportion of households that experienced either a break-in, attempted break-in or motor vehicle theft in the 12 months prior to April 2005 has fallen to 6%, down from 9% for the corresponding period in 2002.

Rates of household crime victimisation varied across states and territories. Victoria and Tasmania shared the lowest level of victimisation, with 5% of households experiencing at least one break-in, attempted break-in or motor vehicle theft, while the Northern Territory had the highest level of victimisation at 13%.

An estimated 5% of people were victims of personal crime, with most of these being victims of assault.

Over two and half million (2,613,400) incidents of assault were experienced by 770,600 victims, with over half of the victims reporting having been assaulted more than once in the 12-month period.

The most common location for assaults to occur was at the victim's home (31% of assault victims), followed by their place of work or study (26%). An estimated 63% of victims knew one or more of the offenders in their most recent assault.

Many victims of robbery shared the same demographic characteristics, with three-quarters of the victims being male, and almost half of the victims aged 15-24.

The survey showed that some types of crime were more likely to be reported to police than others. Motor vehicle theft (90%) was the most likely crime to be reported to police, with attempted break and enter and assault (both 31%) the least likely.

Further information is available in Crime and Safety, Australia, April 2005 (cat. no. 4509.0), available free of charge from the ABS web site <www.abs.gov.au>