4530.0 - Crime Victimisation, Australia, 2012-13 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/02/2014   
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MALICIOUS PROPERTY DAMAGEEndnote 1

WHAT IS MALICIOUS PROPERTY DAMAGE?

In this survey, malicious property damage is defined as the Intentional or wilful (not accidental) damage, defacement or destruction of any part of the victim's home or anything usually kept at home. Property is something tangible in nature, including land, conveyances, animals or other objects capable of being privately owned. Destruction can mean any alteration that may render something imperfect or inoperative, including destruction of property, graffiti or vandalism, partial destruction, killing or harming an owned animal and removing or destroying a plant or other part of an owned landscape. Malicious property damage excludes:

  • damage to rental, investment or holiday properties owned by a member of the household
  • acts such as turning off water meters and flicking safety switches if no damage to the meter occurred.

PREVALENCE AND REPORTING RATE FOR 2012-13 (see Data cube 1, Table 1)

During the 12 months prior to interview, an estimated 555,900 Australian households (6.3% of all households) experienced at least one incident of malicious property damage. Just over half (51%) of households that experienced malicious property damage reported the most recent incident to police.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MALICIOUS PROPERTY DAMAGE INCIDENTS (see Data cube 4, Table 21)

This section discusses characteristics of the most recent incident for households that were victims of malicious property damage in the 12 months prior to interview.

In the most recent incident of malicious property damage experienced by households:

  • exterior items (for 66% of all household victims, or 364,200 households) were the most common type of property damaged, defaced, or destroyed, followed by a car or other motor vehicle (27% of all household victims, or 152,000 households).
  • where the incident was not reported to police, the main reason given was:
    • the incident was considered too trivial/unimportant (30% or 165,400 households)
    • it was believed there was nothing the police could do (10% or 55,700 households).

ENDNOTE

1 All comparisons discussed have been tested for statistical significance with a 95% level of confidence that there is a real difference between the two populations being tested. Only data with a relative standard error (RSE) of less than 25% is referred to in the text of this publication. For further information, refer to the Technical Note.