Note: 9 July 2007 - The product is being re-issued to provide four data cubes (Tables 16, 17, 18 and 19) - breakdowns by State/Territory of victims of selected offences by Age and sex; Location where offence occurred; Use of Weapon in commission of the offence; and Outcome of investigation at 30 days.
NOTES
ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION
This publication presents national crime statistics relating to victims of a selected range of offences that have been recorded by police. These statistics provide indicators of the level and nature of recorded crime victimisation in Australia and a basis for measuring change over time. As not all crimes are reported to or recorded by police, other data sources can assist in providing a more comprehensive view of crime levels in society.
INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
The statistics contained in this publication are derived from administrative systems maintained by state and territory police. Although national standards and classifications are used, differences over time in the level of recorded crime may reflect factors other than a change in the incidence of crime. Over time there have been significant changes in police recording systems, business rules and legislation resulting in some discrepancies remaining between states and territories for some offence types. Short term effects on the level of crime recorded by police may also occur as a result of individual jurisdictional initiatives, such as special task forces formed to combat particular offences, or implementation of proactive policing campaigns to encourage reporting by the public. Details of differences that impact on the statistics are in the Explanatory Notes paragraphs 20 to 96.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is working with police agencies to develop a National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) to further improve the national comparability of the Recorded Crime Victims collection. (See Explanatory Notes paragraph 18.)
CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE
For the first time, experimental data on the Indigenous status of victims are included in this publication (see Appendix 1). Currently, only three jurisdictions can provide data of sufficient quality for national reporting: New South Wales; Queensland; and the Australian Capital Territory. The lack of data for other jurisdictions and data quality issues mean that these tables are experimental, and should be used with some caution. The ABS is progressively resolving issues associated with data availability and quality with the data providers.
FURTHER INFORMATION
More information about ABS activities in the field of crime and justice statistics is available from the Crime and Justice theme page on the ABS web site.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The ABS acknowledges the valuable contribution of the Board of Management of the National Crime Statistics Unit, the National Crime Statistics Advisory Group and the staff of the various agencies that provide the statistics that are presented in this publication.
INQUIRIES
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Terence Byrnes on Melbourne (03) 9615 7681.
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