17 May 2013
Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Justice Jason Clare today released the Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC) annual report into crime trends which shows a general decrease in crime levels.
“This is a good result for law enforcement agencies across the country, but we still have a lot more work to do,” Mr Clare said.
The annual report, Australian Crime: Facts & Figures, provides government agencies, the media and the Australian public with accurate and easy to use access to crime statistics in a single location. It reveals the following:
- The number of recorded victims of robbery has decreased by seven percent from 14,582 in 2009-10 to 13,617 in 2010-11.
- There has been a three percent reduction in the number of victims of sexual assault with 17,238 victims in 2010-11 which is 519 fewer victims than the previous year.
- 2010-11 saw 67 more recorded victims of kidnapping and abduction than 2009-10.
- The number of homicide victims saw a small increase however the rate remained at historically low levels of 1.2 per 100,000 people.
Fraud is generally declining however fraud committed on credit and charge cards has continued the trend of previous years by increasing.
- Between 2010 and 2011, fraud per $1,000 transacted on these accounts increased from 67.24 cents to 96.04 cents – a total increase of 43 percent.
The report contains important demographic information on the most common offenders:
- Offending rates were highest for both males and females aged 15-19 years. The rate of offending for most violent crimes was highest around 17 years of age.
- 74 percent of prisoners in 2011 were of non-Indigenous backgrounds however the rate of imprisonment of Indigenous offenders was 18 times higher at 2,276 per 100,000 people compared to 125 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous offenders.
As with previous editions, the 2012 edition of Australian Crime: Facts & Figures includes a chapter with a focus on a specific area of crime and justice of national importance. This year, that chapter focuses on the relationship between alcohol and other drugs, and offending. This chapter reveals that:
- Of all physical assaults where alcohol or other drugs was considered a contributing factor, the victims were primarily male and generally aged less than 24 years old.
- While assaults primarily occurred between strangers regardless of the involvement of alcohol or other drugs, where this was a fact the proportion was much higher (48% vs. 27%).
- 65 percent of male prison entrants and 78 percent of female prison entrants reported using drugs in the past 12 months.
- Drug use by Indigenous prison entrants decreased from 72 percent in 2009 to 68 percent in 2010. Drug use by non-Indigenous prison entrants decreased from 71 percent in 2009 to 65 percent in 2010.
Australian Crime: Facts & Figures can be found at www.aic.gov.au
