1367.5 - Western Australian Statistical Indicators, Mar 2001  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 11/04/2001   
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MEDIA RELEASE

April 4, 2001
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
36/2001
One in nine WA households are affected by crime

Breaks-ins, attempted break-ins and motor vehicle theft affected 11.4 percent of WA households during the 12 months to October 2000, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Household crime affected 12.3 percent of Perth households but only 9.0 percent of households in the rest of WA. The most common household offence was break-in, reported by 6.0 percent of households while 1.9 percent of households reported motor vehicle theft. 'One parent' households (14.7 percent) and 'other' households (15.1 percent) had the highest victimisation rates for household crime.

While householders did not always report crime to the police, 95.9 percent of motor vehicle thefts were reported. Conversely, only 31.2 percent of attempted break-ins were reported to police.

Personal crime (robbery, assault and sexual assault) affected 5.5 percent of Western Australians aged 15 and over. Males, with a victimisation rate of 6.2 percent, were more likely to be victims than females (4.8 percent). People aged 15-24 years had the highest victimisation rate of 11.9 percent. Victimisation rates dropped progressively with age to 1.3 percent for those people aged 55 years and over. The unemployed were more likely to experience personal crime (12.9 percent) than their employed counterparts (5.7 percent).

People were least likely to report the personal crime of assault to police (27.2 percent) while 50.5 percent of assault victims experienced more than one incident of assault.

A total of 63.3 percent of assault victims reported that in the most recent incident, the offender was known to them. Where the offender was known, they were most likely to be a family member (including ex-partner). In the most recent incident of assault, family members, friends and acquaintances accounted for 48.1 percent of offenders.

When asked about crime or public nuisance, 44.5 percent of people reported that there were no problems in their neighbourhood.

Western Australians who did perceive a crime or public nuisance problem in their neighbourhood felt that housebreaking/burglaries, vandalism/graffiti/damage to property, dangerous/noisy driving and motor vehicle theft were the major issues.

Information was collected through the WA Crime and Safety survey, conducted during October 2000. Further details are available in Western Australian Statistical Indicators March 2001 (cat. no. 1367.5) available from ABS bookshops. The main features of the publication are available on this site. If you wish to purchase a copy of this publication, contact the ABS Bookshop in your capital city.