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MEASURING CRIME AND CRIMINAL OFFENDING

Crime is a product of the surrounding social environment and its occurrence is influenced by the complex interplay of environmental, social and person-level factors, as well as the policies of particular governments. These contextual factors interact in the lead-up to, commission of, and consequences of a criminal event.

Concepts relating to crime and justice can be challenging to measure and there are a number of ways information can be generated. Not all of the characteristics of crime can be measured adequately from data sourced from administrative agencies; alternative sources such as survey data collected from households or case studies can provide a more in-depth understanding of the complex factors related to crime.


Victimisation

Police are the primary agency responsible for the prevention, detection and investigation of criminal incidents. At the point where an incident of crime victimisation occurs, there are a number of ways in which this can be measured and a number of stages where a measurement can be taken. This can range from the time that a person perceives that they have been a victim, through to reporting to police and the laying of charges.

Administrative crime victimisation data are based on reported incidents to police agencies, however not all crimes come to the attention of police. The type of offence committed, the victim's perception of its seriousness and the police's ability to take action all influence whether an incident is reported. Some offences are also very difficult to detect.

Data about crime victimisation are also measured in ABS household surveys which collect information from members of households about their experiences of a selected range of personal and household crimes. In general, the victimisation rates measured from crime victimisation surveys are higher than those measured from administrative data sourced from police agencies.

Neither administrative data nor survey data provide a definitive measure of crime victimisation, but together these sources provide a more comprehensive picture of crime victimisation than either measure on its own. Users should be aware that both sources have a number of limitations. For more detailed information about the differences between these sources and the implications about data comparability, refer to the information paper Measuring Victims of Crime: A Guide to Using Administrative and Survey Data, June 2011 (cat. no. 4500.0.55.001).


Linkages and limitations

Although snapshot views of both victims and offenders who come into contact with the criminal justice system are available, the data sourced from these collections are not inter-linked and therefore not strictly comparable across the collections. They do not, for instance, enable the matching of a victim, offender or a specific incident through the criminal justice system. It is currently not possible to identify the same offender moving through the justice system nationally across the police, courts and corrective services sectors due to limitations in the availability of unique person identifiers. 

There are strong links between victims and offenders recorded by police in their administrative systems. Once a victim is recorded by police an investigation may ensue which could result, although not always, in an offender being proceeded against by police. However, a number of limitations exist between the Recorded Crime - Offenders collection and the Recorded Crime - Victims collection:

• data cannot be directly linked;
• the counting units vary as the concept of a principal offence is not applied in the Recorded Crime - Victims collection. Victims may be counted more than once if multiple offences are classified in different ANZSOC divisions;
• the reference period used in the Recorded Crime - Victims collection is based on a calendar year, while the Recorded Crime - Offenders collection is based on a financial year;
• police may detect offending without a victim reporting a crime, or in the instances of 'victimless' crime, such as Illicit drug offences or Regulatory offences. Such offences are excluded from the Recorded Crime - Victims collection which is based upon counts of individuals and organisations; and
• statistics about victims of Assault are not strictly comparable across the jurisdictions in the Recorded Crime - Victims collection. As a result, comparisons should not be made using Assault counts from both collections. For more information about the Recorded Crime - Victims collection, refer to Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia (cat. no. 4510.0).