4509.1 - Crime and Safety, New South Wales, Apr 2006  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 27/11/2006   
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MEDIA RELEASE

November 27, 2006
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEDT)
111/2006

NSW residents feeling safer in their neighbourhood

The proportion of NSW residents who perceived that there are no problems from crime or people creating a public nuisance in their neighbourhood increased, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

In April 2006, 53% of people did not perceive any problems from crime or public nuisance in their neighbourhood, an increase on the 52% recorded in 2004 and 45% recorded five years earlier (2001).

For the selected household crimes of break and enter, attempted break and enter and motor vehicle theft, victimisation rates were steady between 2006 and 2004. The proportion of households who experienced such crimes did not change significantly between the two periods. Around 6.8% of households in NSW were victims of household crime in the 12 months prior to April 2006, compared to 7.4% in 2004. This was however a significant decrease on 2003 (9.4%) and 2001 (11.4%)

The proportion of persons aged 15 years and over who experienced personal crimes of robbery, assault or sexual assault in the 12 months prior to April 2006, also remained relatively unchanged. Around 4.2% of persons were victims of these personal crimes in 2006, compared to 4.5% in 2004. This 2004 victimisation rate was unchanged from 2003 but was significantly lower than the 2001 rate of 5.1%.

For the victims of all the selected household and personal crimes, reporting rates of those individual offences to the police were relatively unchanged compared to both the 2004 and 2003 reporting rates. In 2006 the proportion of victims reporting the most recent incident to the police were: break and enter (72%), robbery (41%) and assault (33%).

The publication Crime and Safety, New South Wales 2006 reports on selected types of household and personal crime, using information collected from people about their experiences of crime in the 12 months prior to the April survey.

Further information is available in Crime and Safety, New South Wales 2006 (cat. no. 4509.1).