4509.1 - Crime and Safety, New South Wales, Apr 2006  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 27/11/2006   
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SUMMARY OF FINDINGS


HOUSEHOLD CRIME

A total of 181,100 households (6.8% of all households in NSW) were victims of household crime in the 12 months to April 2006, which was similar to the 2004 figure (7.4%). However, these victimisation rates were lower than the 2003 rate of 9.4%, which was lower than the 2001 rate of 11.4%.

The victimisation rates for break and enter (3.5%), attempted break and enter (3.1%) and motor vehicle theft (1.0%) also remained similar to their corresponding 2004 victimisation rates.

VICTIMISATION RATES FOR HOUSEHOLD CRIME—2006 and 2004
Graph - Victimisation rates for household crime — 2006 and 2004


As in 2004, the household victimisation rates for Sydney and the Balance of NSW remained about the same (7.0% and 6.7% respectively).

In 2006, the household victimisation rates for different household types generally did not differ. The sole exception was lone parent households, whose victimisation rate of 10.8% was significantly higher than that for households comprising couples with children (7.0%), persons living alone (6.2%) and couple only households (5.5%).

PERSONAL CRIME

There were 226,700 usual residents aged 15 years and over in NSW who were victims of personal crime in the 12 months to April 2006, a victimisation rate of 4.2%. This was similar to the 2004 and 2003 rates (both 4.5%). The victimisation rates for robbery (0.7%), assault (3.5%) and sexual assault (0.2%) remained relatively unchanged compared to the 2004 victimisation rates.

As with household crime, the personal crime victimisation rates were similar for both Sydney and the Balance of NSW, at 4.0% and 4.6% respectively. Persons not in the labour force had a lower victimisation rate (2.7%) than both employed persons (4.9%) and unemployed persons (7.0%). The victimisation rate for persons not in the labour force was lower than in 2004 (3.9%). The apparent difference between victimisation rates for employed and unemployed persons was not statistically significant.

Overall, males were more likely to be victims of personal crime than females. There were 140,300 male victims, a victimisation rate of 5.3%, and 86,400 female victims, a victimisation rate of 3.2%. In particular, the victimisation rates for males was higher than for females for 15-24 year olds and 35-44 year olds. The differences between the sexes for all the other age groupings were not statistically significant.

Although victimisation rates showed a general decline with increasing age, decreases in victimisation rates between adjacent age groups only occurred between 3544 and 4554 year olds for males and between 4554 and 5564 year olds for females. Other apparent differences were not statistically significant.

VICTIMS OF PERSONAL CRIME(a) Age and sex—2006
Graph - Victims of personal crime age and sex — 2006

Of the 189,700 victims of assault, just under half (45%) stated that they knew their offender(s). Of the victims who knew their offender, 31% stated that the offender was a family member or a friend.

MULTIPLE VICTIMS

Of those households which experienced household crime, 29% were victims on more than one occasion within the 12 month reference period. For the individual household offence types, attempted break and enter had the highest proportion of multiple victims (30%), followed by break and enter (19%) and motor vehicle theft (4%).

Of those persons who were victims of personal crime, 46% experienced more than one incident in the 12 month reference period. The proportion of multiple victims was higher for victims of assault at 50%, compared to 21% for victims of robbery.

REPORTING TO POLICE

The reporting of incidents to the police varied according to the type of offence. For household crime, the proportion of victims reporting the most recent incident to police was considerably higher for break and enter (72%) than for attempted break and enter (22%).

For personal crime, the most recent incident was reported to the police by 41% of robbery victims, compared to 33% of assault victims. However, the difference between these two reporting rates was not statistically significant.

There were no significant differences in reporting rates for any individual household or personal offence types compared to 2004.

PERCEPTION OF CRIME/PUBLIC NUISANCE

In 2006, an estimated 53% of persons did not think there were any crime or public nuisance problems in their neighbourhood. This was an increase on the 52% of persons who did not perceive any problems in 2004. The percentage of persons who did not perceive any problems from crime or public nuisance in their neighbourhoods has been increasing every survey year since 2001.

PERCEPTION OF CRIME/PUBLIC NUISANCE PROBLEMS: No perceived problems1997 to 2006
Graph: Public Nuisance Problems: No perceived problems—1997 to 2006
The main perceived crime or public nuisance problems reported were dangerous/noisy driving and housebreaking/burglaries/theft from homes, with 9.3% and 9.1% of persons respectively identifying one of these as the main problem in their neighbourhood. The next most common perceived problem was vandalism/graffiti/damage to property (8.6%), followed by louts/youth gangs (6.7%).