4530.0 - Crime Victimisation, Australia, 2013-14 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 17/02/2015   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All

BREAK-IN AND ATTEMPTED BREAK-INEndnote 1

BREAK-IN

What is a break-in?

In this survey, a break-in is defined as an act of unauthorised forced entry into a home or other place where a victim permanently resides.

Break-in includes:

    • forced entry to garages, sheds or any detached secure buildings such as games/hobby rooms and granny flats
    • caravans where it was the victim's permanent residence.
Break-in excludes:
    • forced entry to motor vehicles or front or rear yards
    • incidents of attempted break-in.

Victimisation and reporting rates for 2013-14 (Table 1)

In the 12 months prior to interview in 2013-14, 228,900 Australian households (2.6% of all households) experienced at least one break-in. In 43% of households the most recent incident of attempted break-in was reported to police.

Characteristics of break-in incidents (Table 20)

This section discusses characteristics of households' most recent incident of break-in in the 12 months prior to interview.

In the most recent incident of break-in experienced by households:
    • The majority of households had property stolen (73%, or 168,000 households)
    • Personal items were stolen in almost one third of households that experienced break-in (31%, or 71,400 households)
    • Half of all households that experienced break-in had property damaged (50%, or 114,400 households)
    • Around one in ten households that experienced a break-in involved the offender/s confronting someone (11%, or 24,400 households)
    • 10% of households (or 22,800 households) that experienced break-in did not report the incident to the police as it was considered to be too trivial/unimportant, while a further 8% (or 18,000 households) believed that the police would have been unwilling/unable to do anything .


ATTEMPTED BREAK-IN

What is an attempted break-in?

For this survey, attempted break-in is defined as an incident where an attempt was made to forcibly enter a home.

Attempted break-in includes:
    • attempts to forcibly enter a caravan (if the caravan was the respondent’s permanent residence), garage, shed or any other detached secure building such as games/hobby rooms or granny flats
    • incidents where a person saw someone acting suspiciously around the property if it was suspected that their intent was to steal property.

Attempted break-in excludes:
    • incidents that resulted in an actual break-in (for example, where someone attempted to break in through a door but then gained entry through a window)
    • attempts to forcibly enter a motor vehicle.

Victimisation and reporting rates (Table 1)

In the 12 months prior to interview in 2013-14, an estimated 170,800 Australian households (1.9% of all households) experienced at least one incident of attempted break-in. Just over two-fifths (43%) of households had the most recent incident of attempted break-in reported to police.

Characteristics of attempted break-in incidents (Table 21)

This section discusses characteristics of the most recent incident for households that were victims of attempted break-in during the 12 months prior to interview.

In the most recent incident of attempted break-in experienced by households:
    • The most commonly identified evidence of attempted break-in was damage to doors or windows (53%), followed by seeing or hearing someone trying to break-in (22%)
    • About one in five (22% or 37,900 households) did not report the most recent incident to police because the incident was considered to be too trivial/unimportant. For a further 17% (or 29,600 households) the main reason for not reporting the incident to police was it was believed that there was nothing the police could do.

ENDNOTE

Endnote 1 All comparisons discussed have been tested for statistical significance with a 95% level of confidence that there is a real difference in the two populations being tested. Only data with a relative standard error (RSE) of less than 25% is referred to in the text of this publication and these estimates are considered sufficiently reliable for general use. To determine whether there is a statistical difference between any other two estimates, significance testing should be undertaken. For further information, refer to the Technical Note.