VICTIMS OF CRIME, AUSTRALIA

This chapter presents national statistics about incidents of victimisation for a selected range of offences that came to the attention of state and territory police and were recorded in the period 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014. The statistics provide information about victim characteristics and the nature of the criminal incidents.

The data in this section are drawn from the Data Cube titled Victims of Crime, Australia (Tables 1-5).

NATIONAL SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

Nationally, there was a decrease between 2013 and 2014 in the number of victims for the majority of offence categories. The following offences decreased:

• Homicide (decrease of 3.0% or 13 victims);
• Kidnapping/abduction (decrease of 7.7% or 46 victims);
• Robbery (decrease of 16% or 1,825 victims);
• Unlawful entry with intent (decrease of 6.5% or 12,650 victims);
• Motor vehicle theft (decrease of 4.4% or 2,322 victims); and
• Other theft (decrease of 1.7% or 8,324 victims).

In contrast, nationally there was an increase between 2013 and 2014 in the number of victims for the following offences:

• Sexual assault (increase of 3.3% or 652 victims); and
• Blackmail/extortion (increase of 3.5% or 18 victims).