4510.0 - Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2008 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 04/06/2009   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All

NOTES


ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This publication presents national crime statistics relating to victims of a selected range of offences that have been recorded by police. These statistics provide indicators of the level and nature of recorded crime victimisation in Australia and a basis for measuring change over time. As not all crimes are reported to or recorded by police, other data sources can assist in providing a more comprehensive view of crime levels in society.


INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

The statistics contained in this publication are derived from administrative systems maintained by state and territory police. Although national standards and classifications are used, differences over time in the level of recorded crime may reflect factors other than a change in the incidence of crime. Over time there have been significant changes in police recording systems, business rules and legislation resulting in some discrepancies remaining between states and territories for some offence types. Short term effects on the level of crime recorded by police may also occur as a result of individual jurisdictional initiatives, such as special task forces formed to combat particular offences, or implementation of proactive policing campaigns to encourage reporting by the public. Details of differences that impact on the statistics are in the Explanatory Notes paragraphs 33-109.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

The format of this issue has been changed from previous issues. National data and state and territory data are now presented in chapters.

Data on the Indigenous status of victims has been expanded and is included in Chapter 3 of the publication for selected states and territories.

Data on the relationship of an offender to a victim is also now included in Chapter 3 of the publication. These data were previously published in 2004.


ROUNDING

Discrepancies may occur between sums of component items and totals across tables due to rounding and randomisation.


INFORMATION ON ABS CRIME AND JUSTICE

More information about ABS activities in the field of crime and justice statistics is available from the Crime and Justice theme page on the ABS website. Details of other ABS publications relating to crime and justice statistics can be found in paragraph 143 of the Explanatory Notes.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The ABS acknowledges the valuable contribution of the Board of Management of the National Crime Statistics Unit (NCSU), the National Crime Statistics Advisory Group and the staff of the various agencies that provide the statistics that are presented in this publication.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Chay Ang on Melbourne (03) 9615 7681.