Australian Bureau of Statistics
Australia Now – A Statistical Profile
Crime and Justice
Crimes recorded by police
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In 1998 the number of victims recorded by police rose from the previous year for all the offence categories except murder and blackmail/extortion (table 11.13). Nationally, offences against property (unlawful entry with intent, motor vehicle theft and other theft) were far more common than offences against the person (murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, assault, sexual assault and kidnapping/abduction).

Personal crime

Assault is the most common category of offences recorded against the person. The table shows that police recorded 132,967 victims of assault nationally during 1998, representing a victimisation rate of 709 victims per 100,000 persons. There were 14,568 cases of sexual assault recorded, a rate of 78 victims per 100,000 persons, and 284 cases of murder, a rate of 1.5 victims per 100,000 persons. Males had higher recorded assault rates than females across all age groups and were more likely to be victims of murder, attempted murder and armed robbery. Females had higher recorded sexual assault rates than males across all age groups, with the overall victimisation rate for females for sexual assault more than four times greater than the overall male sexual assault rate. Females were also more likely to be victims of kidnapping/abduction than males.

Nationally, victimisation rates were generally highest for the 15-19 year age group (table 11.14). This age group had the highest victimisation rates for manslaughter, sexual assault, kidnapping/abduction, armed robbery and unarmed robbery. Victims aged 20-24 years had the highest victimisation rates for assault and blackmail/extortion, while victims aged 25?34 years had the highest victimisation rates for murder and attempted murder.

Property crime

In 1998 there were 435,670 offences nationally recorded by police as relating to unlawful entry into premises with intent. Of these offences, 343,256 (79%) involved either actual or intended taking of property. A further 92,414 offences (21%) were recorded where the unlawful entry was made with the intention to commit some other form of criminal act, such as assault or property damage.

A total of 131,572 motor vehicles were recorded stolen in Australia during 1998. This represents an increase of 1.1% compared with motor vehicle theft in 1997. Other theft includes all recorded theft offences except theft of motor vehicles and theft arising from unlawful entry to a premises, and is the largest category of all property offences. A total of 565,214 other theft offences were recorded in 1998, an increase of 6.5% over 1997.

11.13 OFFENCES RECORDED BY POLICE, Number and Rate *
*NOTE: there are some very good charts on this website…. too much to post here, a must see sight!