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OFFENCES AND OFFENDERS

Reported offences

Crimes recorded by police are offences that became known to police and are recorded by them. These offences may have been reported by a victim, witness or other person, or may have been detected by police.

These statistics do not provide the total picture however, as ABS household-based crime and safety surveys reveal that many crimes are not reported to the police. In particular, surveys show that personal crimes such as assault and sexual assault are much less likely to be reported to police than property crimes. In addition, reporting rates can change over time.

Care should also be taken in interpreting changes in police statistics. Changes in recorded crime may reflect changes in:

• community attitudes to reporting crime;
• policing resources and strategies; and/or
• crime recording systems,

According to the ACT Policing, Annual Report, 2005-06 some 39,322 offences were reported to police during the financial year. This represents a 0.1% increase on the 39,288 reported offences shown in the ACT Policing, Annual Report, 2004-05. The total number of offences cleared (processed) by the police during 2005-06 was 12,131, an 11% decrease from the number of offences cleared in 2004-05 (13,670). Offences cleared during a time period may not necessarily relate to those offences reported in the same time period. They could relate to offences reported in previous time periods.

9.3 REPORTED OFFENCES, By offences and offenders - ACT - 2005-06
		Offences (a)		Offenders
		Reported (b)	Cleared (c)	Male	Female	Total
		No.	No.	No.	No.	No.
Offences against the person
	Homicide and related offences	6	5	7	1	8
	Assaults (excluding sexual)	2 021	1 372	811	194	1 005
	Sexual assaults/offences	344	269	108	3	111
	Other offences	417	246	112	11	123
	Total	2 788	1 892	1 038	209	1 247
Property damage and environmental offences
	Property damage	8 044	702	410	66	476
	Environmental offences	10	8	2	1	3
	Total	8 054	710	412	67	479
Robbery and extortion
	Robbery	272	105	84	35	119
	Blackmail and extortion	1	-	-	-	-
	Total	273	105	84	35	119
Burglary, fraud and other offences of theft
	Burglary	5 047	358	365	28	393
	Fraud and misappropriation	645	334	317	129	446
	Handling stolen goods	164	165	252	56	308
	Theft or illegal use of vehicle	2 719	230	272	33	305
	Other theft	12 016	1 537	843	445	1 288
	Total	20 591	2 624	2 049	691	2 740
Offences against good order		2 822	2 410	2 656	567	3 223
Drug offences		415	437	440	73	513
Other offences not elsewhere classified		4 379	3 953	3 349	537	3 886
All offences		39 322	12 131	10 028	2 179	12 207
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Offences classifications are based on the Australian National Classification of Offences (ANCO) (1985).
(b) Excludes offences reported in the Jervis Bay Territory
(c) Offences cleared do not necessarily relate to those offences reported in the time period
ACT Policing, Annual Report, 2005-06.

In 2005-06 the highest number of offences were recorded in: Other theft (12,016), Property damage (8,044), Burglary (5,047) and Other offences not elsewhere classified (4,379).

Offenders

There were a total of 12,207 offenders recorded in the ACT in 2005-06, an increase of 7% on the number recorded in 2004-05 (11,373).

Of the offenders recorded in 2005-06, 10,028 (82%) were male and 2,179 (18%) were female. The number of male offenders recorded in 2005-06 increased by 6% (from 9,467 in 2004-05), while the number of female offenders increased by 14% (from 1,906 in 2004-05).

The offence category with the highest number of male offenders during 2005-06 was Other offences not elsewhere classified (3,349 or 33% of male offenders), followed by Offences against good order (2,656 or 26%) and then Other theft (843 or 8%).

The offence category with the highest number of female offenders during 2005-06 was Offences against good order (567 or 26% of female offenders), followed by Other offences not elsewhere classified (537 or 25%) and then Other theft (445 or 20%).