VICTIMS OF CRIME, STATES AND TERRITORIES

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents state and territory statistics about victims of a selected range of offences that came to the attention of state and territory police during the period 1 January to 31 December 2017. Note that Assault data are not published for Victoria or Queensland (see the Explanatory Notes for further information).

Between 2016 and 2017:

• The number of victims of Homicide and related offences recorded decreased nationally by 9% from 453 victims to 414 victims. A number of jurisdictions contributed to this decrease, the largest were Queensland (down 27 victims), New South Wales (down 26 victims) and Western Australia (down 20 victims). Nationally, the number of victims of Murder and Attempted murder decreased (down 11% and 15%, respectively) while the number of victims of Manslaughter increased by 52% (or 15 victims).
  
• There were increases in the number of victims of Assault recorded in the Northern Territory (up 871 victims or 13%) and Tasmania (up 247 victims or 8%). This number remained stable in New South Wales (up 200 victims or less than 1%). All other jurisdictions for which Assault is published decreased, the largest of which occurred in Western Australia (down 1,599 victims).
  
• Sexual Assault victims increased by 8% (or 1,917 victims) to 24,957 victims recorded, representing the sixth consecutive annual increase. Since 2016 the increase was largely due to New South Wales (up 12% or 1,052 victims), Victoria (up 13% or 670 victims) and Queensland (up 9% or 402 victims).
  
• The number of Robbery victims recorded increased nationally by 2% (or 187 victims). This was driven by increases in Queensland (up 230 victims or 14%), Victoria (up 132 victims or 4%) and New South Wales (up 74 victims or 3%). Nationally, while Unarmed robbery increased (9% or 408 victims), Armed robbery decreased by 5% or 228 victims.
  
• The number of victims of Unlawful entry with intent decreased nationally by 7% (or 12,604 victims) to reach their lowest levels since the beginning of the time series in 2010, with 176,153 victims recorded in 2017. This decrease was recorded across a number of jurisdictions, most notably in Victoria (down 8,266 victims or 16%), Western Australia (down 3,385 victims or 9%), New South Wales (down 2,983 victims or 7%) and South Australia (down 1,923 victims or 14%).
  
• The national decrease (8%) in Motor vehicle theft was driven by decreases in Victoria, down 4,189 victims or 22% to 14,803 victims and Western Australia, down 1,156 victims or 14% to 7,201 victims.
  
• The largest decrease in the number of victims recorded by offence nationally was for Other theft (down 27,195 victims or 5%), with 510,083 victims recorded in 2017. Other theft includes the unauthorised taking or use of goods and services from a person, premises or motor vehicle, see Glossary for full list of offence inclusions. The decrease was driven by a number of jurisdictions, most notably Victoria which decreased by 21,614 victims (15%) to reach their lowest levels since 2014 with 118,510 victims recorded in 2017. (Tables 1 and 6)