CRIME


RECORDED CRIME, VICTIMS 2009

During 2009 there were 18,800 victims of sexual assault recorded by police; one in four sexual assault victims were children aged 10 to 14 years.

The victimisation rate for all sexual assault victims aged 10-14 was 4 times higher than the rate for all age groups (338 victims per 100,000 people aged 10-14 compared with 86 victims per 100,000 people).

Between 2008 and 2009 the number of victims recorded by police for blackmail/extortion offences increased by 60% (equating to a victimisation rate of 3 victims per 100,000 people). The number of victims increased marginally for the personal offences of murder (1%), and decreased for manslaughter (-6%), sexual assault (-2%), kidnapping/abduction (-19%) and robbery (-5%).

About the release

The Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia (cat. no. 4510.0) publication presents statistics on the incidents of victimisation for a selected range of offences that came to the attention of police and were recorded by them in the period 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009. These statistics provide information about the characteristics of the victim (age and sex) and the nature of the criminal incidents (weapon use and location). Data also available by state and territory.


RECORDED CRIME - OFFENDERS 2008-09

Recorded Crime - Offenders, 2008-09 found that police proceeded against 344,300 alleged offenders aged 10 years or more, a 6% increase on the previous year.

Female offenders increased by 8% (to 77,300 offenders) between 2007-08 and 2008-09, while male offenders increased by 6% (to 266,000 offenders). The most common principal offence for males was acts intended to cause injury (22%), for females it was theft (29%).

Youth offenders (10-19 years) comprised nearly a third (30%) of the total offender population, while offenders aged 15 to 19 years accounted for the largest proportion (24%) of offenders in Australia and had the highest offender rate (5,480 offenders per 100,000 people aged 15 to 19 years).

About the release

The Recorded Crime - Offenders (cat. no. 4519.0) publication presents statistics relating to offenders who were proceeded against by police during the period 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009, for all states and territories. These statistics describe the characteristics of the offender, including the principal offence for which offenders are proceeded against. Data are also presented on the number of police-initiated court and non-court actions against offenders.


CRIME VICTIMISATION, AUSTRALIA 2008-09

Australian households experienced approximately 1.6 million incidents of malicious property damage in the 12 months prior to interview, while an estimated 369,200 households (4.5%) were victims of at least one theft from a motor vehicle.

For selected personal crimes, Crime Victimisation, Australia 2008-09 found of those aged 15 years and over, an estimated:

• 527,400 (3.1%) people were victims of at least one physical assault,
• 718,600 (4.2%) people were victims of at least one threatened assault, including face to face and non face to face threatened assaults, and
• 96,700 (0.6%) people were victims of at least one robbery.

Overall, 69% of people perceived that their neighbourhood had specific problems from crime or public nuisance. Commonly perceived problems included dangerous or noisy driving (45%), vandalism, graffiti or damage to property (36%) and house break-ins, burglaries or theft from homes (29%).


About the release

The Crime Victimisation, Australia (cat. no. 4530.0) publication presents first results from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' redesigned national Crime Victimisation Survey, conducted from July 2008 to June 2009 using the ABS Multipurpose Household Survey (MPHS). The publication includes data about victims for a selected range of personal and household offences, whether victims reported these incidents to police, characteristics of victims and characteristics of their most recent incident, and people's perceptions of safety and problems in their neighbourhood.