VICTIMS OF CRIME, AUSTRALIA

This chapter presents national statistics about victims of a selected range of offences that were recorded by state and territory police during the period 1 January to 31 December, 2017.

National data about victims of Assault are unavailable as statistics about these offences are not published for Victoria and Queensland (see the Explanatory Notes for further information).

A victim may be a person, premises, organisation or motor vehicle depending on the offence type (see Glossary for further information).


NATIONAL OVERVIEW

The number of victims recorded decreased for the majority of selected offence categories between 2016 and 2017, with the exception of Sexual assault and Robbery which increased by 1,917 (8%) and 187 (2%) victims respectively. (Table 1)


Since the beginning of the time series in 2010 the number of victims has decreased across the majority of offences with the exception of Sexual assault, Blackmail/extortion and Other theft where the number of victims has increased. (Table 1)


HOMICIDE AND RELATED OFFENCES

The number of Homicide victims across Australia decreased from 453 victims in 2016 to 414 victims in 2017 (down 39 victims or 9%). (Table 1)

Murder and Attempted murder

Across Australia in 2017, the number of victims of Murder and Attempted murder decreased by 11% (down 24 victims) and 15% (down 30 victims) respectively. The majority of Murders (66%) and Attempted murders (55%) took place at a residential location. (Table 3)

Around two in three victims of Murder (70%) and Attempted murder (67%) were male. Less than a third of Murder victims in 2017 were female (30% or 61 victims), this was the lowest number recorded since the beginning of the time series in 2010. (Table 2)

In 2017 the majority of both Murder (65%) and Attempted murder (69%) involved the use of a weapon. (Table 4)

Manslaughter

Between 2016 and 2017, the number of victims of Manslaughter increased by 15 to 44 victims; Manslaughter was the only Homicide and related offences category to increase in 2017. A weapon was predominantly not involved (84% or 37 victims). (Table 4)


SEXUAL ASSAULT

The number of Sexual assault victims recorded by police increased by 8% across Australia, from 23,040 victims in 2016 to 24,957 victims in 2017. This was the highest number recorded since the beginning of the time series in 2010 and was the sixth consecutive year the number of Sexual assault victims has increased. The victimisation rate has increased from 86 victims of Sexual assault per 100,000 persons in 2010 to 102 victims of Sexual assault per 100,000 persons in 2017. (Table 1)

Consistent with the previous year, Sexual assault occurred most at a residential location (66%), and the majority (82%) of Sexual assault victims were female (20,556 victims). A quarter of all Sexual assault victims were aged between 15 and 19 years, this age range also had the highest victimisation rate at 416 victims per 100,000 persons. (Tables 2 and 3)


ROBBERY

In 2017 the number of victims of Robbery recorded slightly increased (by 2%), from 9,412 victims in 2016 to 9,599 victims. The number of victims of Armed robbery decreased (down 5%), while the number of victims of Unarmed robbery increased (up 9%). In 2017, 44% of Armed robberies involved a knife (2,091 victims), while a firearm was used for 12% (579 victims), consistent with the 2016 data. (Tables 1 and 4)



UNLAWFUL ENTRY WITH INTENT

In 2017 there were 176,153 victims of Unlawful entry with intent, which represented a 7% or 12,604 victims decrease from the previous year. This was the lowest number recorded since the beginning of the time series in 2010. (Table 1)

Unlawful entry with intent most commonly occurred at a residential location, accounting for around 70% of victims across all years since the beginning of the time series in 2010. (Table 3)


MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT

Nationally, Motor vehicle theft decreased by 8% or 4,179 victims in 2017. This was the first decrease in Motor vehicle theft since 2014. (Table 1)

Over half (52%) of the 51,869 Motor vehicles that were stolen in 2017 were taken from a residential location (27,202 victims). The second most commonly reported location was a street or footpath (26% or 13,390). (Table 3)


OTHER THEFT

The number of victims of Other theft offences (which include the unauthorised taking or use of goods and services from a person, premises or motor vehicle) decreased by 5% in 2017, representing a decrease from 537,278 victims in 2016 to 510,083 in 2017. More than a third of these thefts (36%) occurred from a retail location (185,038 victims), nearly one in three (31%) occurred from a residential location (160,084 victims). (Tables 1 and 3)