1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2002  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 25/01/2002   
   Page tools: Print Print Page  
Contents >> Crime and Justice >> Crimes recorded by police

The number of victims of crimes recorded by police increased between 1999 and 2000 for almost all of the offences listed in table 11.6. The largest proportional increases were recorded for victims of driving causing death (12%), sexual assault (11%) and other theft (10%). The main falls were for murder and kidnapping/abduction (by 12% and 10% respectively). As well as increases in the number of victims, there have also been increases in victimisation rates for many of the offence types.

The annual recorded counts for murder victims in Australia have fluctuated over the period 1995 to 2000. This is due in large part to the following incidents: Tasmania in 1996 where 35 lives were taken in a single incident at Port Arthur; South Australia in 1999 where 12 bodies were discovered at Snowtown; Western Australia in 1999 where 9 victims resulted from two family murder/suicide incidents; and Queensland in 2000 where victims of the fire at Childers were recorded. Despite this fluctuation in the number of murders victims, the victimisation rates for murder in Australia have remained relatively stable over the last six years, ranging from 1.5 to 1.8 victims per 100,000 persons.


11.6 NUMBER OF VICTIMS AND VICTIMISATION RATE, By Selected Offences Recorded by Police

Offence category
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000

NUMBER

Homicide and related offences
976
1,027
n.a.
995
970
989
Murder
326
312
321
285
343
302
Attempted murder
300
335
318
387
359
391
Manslaughter
30
38
39
47
43
44
Driving causing death(a)
320
342
n.a.
276
225
252
Assault
101,710
114,156
124,500
130,903
134,271
141,124
Sexual assault
13,099
14,542
14,353
14,336
14,104
15,630
Kidnapping/abduction
459
480
562
705
766
688
Robbery
14,564
16,372
21,305
23,801
22,606
23,314
Armed robbery
5,258
6,256
9,054
10,850
9,452
9,474
Unarmed robbery
9,306
10,116
12,251
12,951
13,154
13,840
Blackmail/extortion
157
268
360
272
255
254
Unlawful entry with intent
385,162
402,079
421,569
434,376
415,735
436,865
Property theft
303,227
313,902
332,525
339,512
322,983
(b)n.a.
Other
81,935
88,177
89,044
94,864
92,752
(b)n.a.
Motor vehicle theft(c)
127,094
122,914
130,138
131,587
129,552
139,094
Other Theft
490,518
521,762
530,881
563,482
612,559
674,813

RATE PER 100,000 POPULATION

Homicide and related offences
5.4
5.6
n.a.
5.3
5.1
5.2
Murder
1.8
1.7
1.7
1.5
1.8
1.6
Attempted murder
1.7
1.8
1.7
2.1
1.9
2.0
Manslaughter
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.2
0.2
Driving causing death(a)
1.8
1.9
n.a.
1.5
1.2
1.3
Assault
562.9
623.5
672.2
699.0
709.2
736.8
Sexual assault
72.5
79.4
77.5
76.6
74.5
81.6
Kidnapping/abduction
2.5
2.6
3.0
3.8
4.0
3.6
Robbery
80.6
89.4
115.0
127.1
119.4
121.7
Armed robbery
29.1
34.2
48.9
57.9
49.9
49.5
Unarmed robbery
51.5
55.3
66.1
69.2
69.5
72.3
Blackmail/extortion
0.9
1.5
1.9
1.5
1.3
1.3
Unlawful entry with intent
2,131.7
2,196.2
2,276.2
2,319.5
2,195.7
2,280.8
Property theft
1,678.2
1,714.6
1,795.4
1,812.9
1,705.8
(b)n.a.
Other
453.5
481.6
480.8
506.6
489.9
(b)n.a.
Motor vehicle theft(c)
703.4
671.4
702.7
702.7
684.2
726.2
Other theft
2,714.7
2,850.0
2,866.4
3,008.9
3,235.2
3,523.1

(a) A change in the recording practices for driving causing death offences in New South Wales resulted in incomplete counts for this offence in 1997.
(b) A change in the legislation related to unlawful entry with intent (UEWI) offences in South Australia resulted in an inability to provide UEWI disaggregated into property theft and other for 2000.
(c) Counts for motor vehicle theft prior to 1997 are not directly comparable with those for other years as Western Australia included the theft of caravans and trailers in addition to motor vehicle theft.

Source: Recorded Crime, Australia (4510.0).


Personal crime

Males were more likely than females to be victims of personal crime, with two exceptions: sexual assault and kidnapping/abduction (graph 11.7). The sexual assault victimisation rate for females (129 victims per 100,000) was more than four times the male victimisation rate (29 victims per 100,000). Males experienced higher recorded assault rates across all age groups.




As table 11.6 shows, assault is the most common category of offences recorded against the person; police recorded 141,124 victims of assault during 2000, representing a victimisation rate of 737 victims per 100,000 persons. There were 15,630 cases of sexual assault recorded, a rate of 82 victims per 100,000 persons, and 302 victims of murder, a rate of 1.6 victims per 100,000 persons.


Property crime

Unlawful entry with intent (UEWI) and other theft are the most frequently occurring of the more serious property offences. The UEWI victimisation rate increased 13% between 1995 and 2000 to be 2,281 victims per 100,000 persons in 2000. The victimisation rate for motor vehicle theft increased by 9% between 1995 and 2000. The rate of other theft was 3,523 victims per 100,000 persons, representing a 38% increase since 1995.


Age and sex of victims

Young people aged 15-24 years in particular, and those aged 25-34 years to a slightly lesser extent, experienced the highest levels of recorded crime victimisation. For the main offence categories (assault, sexual assault and robbery) the rates for these groups were at least twice the average for those offences (table 11.8).


11.8 VICTIMISATION RATES(a) OF SELECTED CRIMES(b), By Age and Sex - 2000

Offence category
0-14
15-19
20-24
25-34
35-44
45 and over
Total(d)

MALES

Murder
0.3
2.2
2.2
2.7
2.9
1.8
1.9
Attempted murder
1.0
2.8
7.0
5.9
2.9
1.4
2.8
Driving causing death
0.5
4.1
3.3
1.9
1.3
1.1
1.5
Assault
329.8
1,731.0
1,653.7
1,517.5
941.8
359.5
839.7
Sexual assault
78.3
54.2
30.4
19.0
8.5
1.9
29.4
Kidnapping/abduction
4.9
5.9
6.5
2.5
1.3
0.4
2.7
Robbery(c)
48.5
548.3
310.7
152.8
92.5
46.4
128.2
Blackmail/extortion(c)
n.p.
2.5
1.7
1.7
3.1
1.5
1.6

FEMALES

Murder
0.5
1.2
2.1
2.2
1.8
0.8
1.2
Attempted murder
0.6
0.6
1.7
2.3
2.1
0.7
1.2
Driving causing death
0.3
2.4
1.1
1.2
0.5
0.9
0.9
Assault
210.4
1,298.0
1,317.0
1,119.6
707.8
186.4
579.6
Sexual assault
250.7
430.7
204.1
121.1
64.1
13.4
128.9
Kidnapping/abduction
8.1
17.8
7.7
4.5
1.6
0.4
4.5
Robbery(c)
9.6
134.5
136.7
83.5
63.0
54.9
63.8
Blackmail/extortion(c)
-
0.6
0.6
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5

PERSONS

Murder
0.4
1.7
2.1
2.5
2.3
1.3
1.6
Attempted murder
0.8
1.7
4.4
4.1
2.5
1.0
2.0
Driving causing death
0.4
3.3
2.2
1.6
0.9
1.0
1.3
Assault
272.2
1,524.9
1,497.9
1,325.5
828.3
270.9
736.8
Sexual assault
162.7
238.9
115.9
70.2
36.5
7.9
81.6
Kidnapping/abduction
6.5
11.7
7.1
3.5
1.5
0.4
3.6
Robbery(c)
29.7
347.7
227.2
118.8
78.3
51.1
97.9
Blackmail/extortion(c)
n.p.
1.6
1.2
1.2
1.9
1.0
1.1

(a) Rate per 100,000 population.
(b) As recorded by police forces in all jurisdictions.
(c) For Robbery and Blackmail/extortion where the victim can be an organisation, figures shown only include person victims.
(d) Includes victims for whom age and/or sex was not specified.

Source: Recorded Crime, Australia, 2000 (4510.0).



Previous PageNext Page