6 July 2017	MEDIA RELEASE	79/2017
	Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra time)

Motor vehicle thefts increased by 9 per cent in 2016, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

ABS Director of Crime and Justice Statistics William Milne said that the number of victims of motor vehicle theft rose to over 56,000 in 2016, the highest number since 2012.

"The increase from last year was driven entirely by three states: Victoria (up 25 per cent), Queensland (up 19 per cent) and South Australia (up 10 per cent)," he said. "All other states and territories recorded decreases.’'

Three-quarters of vehicles were stolen from either an outbuilding or residential land (which includes thefts from garages, driveways and carports) or from a street or footpath.

Between 2015 and 2016, the number of victims recorded nationally increased across a range of offences. However, since 2010 the number of victims have decreased for the following offences:

• Homicide and related offences – down 2 per cent to 452 victims
• Robbery – down 36 per cent to 9,403 victims
• Burglary – down 9 per cent to 188,756 victims

The number of sexual assault victims increased for the fifth consecutive year, up 5 per cent to 23,052 victims in 2016.

Victims of family and domestic violence (FDV) related sexual assault increased slightly more, up by 6 per cent from 2015 to 8,210 victims in 2016. The number of female victims of FDV-related sexual assault was almost six times higher (6,942 victims) than the number of male victims (1,248 victims).

Further information can be found in Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4510.0) available for free download from the ABS website: https://abs.gov.au/.

Media notes:

• When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) as the source.
• The 2016 publication marks the seventh year of a new time series following a break in series for the collection in the 2010 publication.
• A victim for the purposes of this publication is defined by the type of offence committed. This can be a person, a premises, and organisation or a motor vehicle.
• Burglary appears in the publication as ‘Unlawful entry with intent’.
• Other theft consists of various types of theft other than motor vehicle theft.
• For the purposes of this publication victims of selected offences have been determined to be family and domestic violence-related where the relationship of offender to victim, as stored of police recording systems, falls within a specified family or domestic relationship, or where an FDV-related flag has been recorded, following police investigation. A specified family and domestic relationship may include (but is not limited to) partner, ex-partner, parent, or other family member.
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