Crimes recorded by police

	Australian Bureau of Statistics
	Australia Now - A Statistical Profile Crime and Justice Crimes recorded by police	Contents Next Topic Previous Topic

In 1998 the number of victims recorded by police rose from the previous year for all the offence categories except murder and blackmail/extortion (table 11.13). Nationally, offences against property (unlawful entry with intent, motor vehicle theft and other theft) were far more common than offences against the person (murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, assault, sexual assault and kidnapping/abduction).

Personal crime

Assault is the most common category of offences recorded against the person. The table shows that police recorded 132,967 victims of assault nationally during 1998, representing a victimisation rate of 709 victims per 100,000 persons. There were 14,568 cases of sexual assault recorded, a rate of 78 victims per 100,000 persons, and 284 cases of murder, a rate of 1.5 victims per 100,000 persons. Males had higher recorded assault rates than females across all age groups and were more likely to be victims of murder, attempted murder and armed robbery. Females had higher recorded sexual assault rates than males across all age groups, with the overall victimisation rate for females for sexual assault more than four times greater than the overall male sexual assault rate. Females were also more likely to be victims of kidnapping/abduction than males.

Nationally, victimisation rates were generally highest for the 15-19 year age group (table 11.14). This age group had the highest victimisation rates for manslaughter, sexual assault, kidnapping/abduction, armed robbery and unarmed robbery. Victims aged 20-24 years had the highest victimisation rates for assault and blackmail/extortion, while victims aged 25-34 years had the highest victimisation rates for murder and attempted murder.

Property crime

In 1998 there were 435,670 offences nationally recorded by police as relating to unlawful entry into premises with intent. Of these offences, 343,256 (79%) involved either actual or intended taking of property. A further 92,414 offences (21%) were recorded where the unlawful entry was made with the intention to commit some other form of criminal act, such as assault or property damage.

A total of 131,572 motor vehicles were recorded stolen in Australia during 1998. This represents an increase of 1.1% compared with motor vehicle theft in 1997. Other theft includes all recorded theft offences except theft of motor vehicles and theft arising from unlawful entry to a premises, and is the largest category of all property offences. A total of 565,214 other theft offences were recorded in 1998, an increase of 6.5% over 1997.

11.13 OFFENCES RECORDED BY POLICE, Number and Rate
Offence category		1996	1997	1998
NUMBER
Homicide
	Murder	312	321	284
	Attempted murder	335	318	382
	Manslaughter	38	39	49
	Driving causing death(a)	342	n.a.	262
Assault		114,156	124,500	132,967
Sexual assault		14,542	14,353	14,568
Kidnapping/abduction		480	562	662
Robbery
	Armed robbery	6,256	9,054	10,850
	Unarmed robbery	10,116	12,251	12,928
Blackmail/extortion		268	360	298
Unlawful entry with intent
	Involving the taking of property	313,902	332,525	343,256
	Other	88,177	89,044	92,414
	Total	402,079	421,569	435,670
	Motor vehicle theft	122,914	130,138	131,572
	Other Theft	521,762	530,881	565,214
RATE PER 100,000 POPULATION
Homicide
	Murder	1.7	1.7	1.5
	Attempted murder	1.8	1.7	2
	Manslaughter	0.2	0.2	0.3
	Driving causing death(a)	1.9	n.a.	1.4
Assault		623.5	672.2	709.2
Sexual assault		79.4	77.5	77.7
Kidnapping/abduction		2.6	3	3.5
Robbery
	Armed robbery	34.2	48.9	57.9
	Unarmed robbery	55.3	66.2	69
	Blackmail/extortion	1.5	1.9	1.6
Unlawful entry with intent
	Involving the taking of property	1,714.6	1,795.4	1,830.9
	Other	481.6	480.8	492.9
	Total	2,196.2	2,276.2	2,323.9
Motor vehicle theft		671.4	702.7	701.8
Other theft		2,850	2,866.4	3,014.8
(a) Complete counts and rate details for the offence Driving causing death are not available for 1997. Source: Recorded Crime, Australia, 1997 (4510.0); Recorded Crime, Australia, 1998 (4510.0).

11.14 VICTIMS OF CRIME RECORDED BY POLICE(a), By Age Group (Years) of Victim - 1998
Offence category	0-9	10-14	15-19	20-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+	Total
MALES
Murder	1.05	0.45	0.89	1.15	3.19	3.04	2.49	1.23	0.80	1.90
Attempted murder	0.45	-	2.22	4.76	5.96	3.53	2.09	0.86	0.40	2.74
Manslaughter	0.15	-	0.74	0.58	0.55	0.62	0.40	0.12	0.10	0.39
Assault	128.13	699.13	1,616.00	1,627.66	1,474.80	887.23	555.07	308.43	105.68	826.07
Sexual assault	62.39	76.47	57.60	22.35	24.26	8.79	3.21	0.61	0.70	28.14
Kidnapping/abduction	5.16	5.80	5.33	4.04	1.66	0.55	0.64	0.61	0.10	2.43
Armed robbery(b)	1.20	25.59	116.69	95.61	61.89	44.15	36.50	32.16	10.51	44.34
Unarmed robbery(b)	3.96	99.52	285.65	146.08	93.76	54.60	38.90	34.86	20.41	74.55
Blackmail/Extortion(b)	-	1.04	2.96	3.46	1.73	2.01	3.13	1.60	0.70	1.89
FEMALES
Murder	0.87	-	1.09	1.20	1.59	1.17	1.23	0.62	1.17	1.13
Attempted murder	0.24	0.47	1.72	1.50	1.87	2.55	1.31	0.37	0.31	1.33
Manslaughter	0.24	0.16	0.47	0.15	-	-	0.16	-	0.16	0.14
Assault	88.75	440.90	1,237.46	1,288.75	1,056.83	656.89	327.85	144.26	46.88	562.84
Sexual assault	158.45	350.10	411.81	201.29	117.64	62.92	25.40	10.98	5.37	123.59
Kidnapping/abduction	5.67	13.57	15.62	6.74	4.02	1.86	0.74	0.12	0.16	4.40
Armed robbery(b)	0.16	3.59	33.73	43.88	31.54	27.05	24.66	14.73	5.53	20.66
Unarmed robbery(b)	1.02	16.54	79.33	78.48	60.73	51.36	57.20	55.28	49.84	49.74
Blackmail/Extortion(b)	-	0.16	0.78	0.60	1.25	0.76	0.49	0.37	0.23	0.59
PERSONS
Murder	0.96	0.23	1.06	1.18	2.39	2.11	1.86	0.93	1.01	1.51
Attempted murder	0.35	0.23	1.98	3.16	3.92	3.04	1.70	0.62	0.35	2.04
Manslaughter	0.19	0.08	0.61	0.37	0.28	0.31	0.28	0.06	0.13	0.26
Assault	109.35	575.10	1,436.40	1,466.41	1,270.11	773.90	444.14	227.52	72.83	709.24
Sexual assault	109.27	210.10	230.84	110.49	71.25	35.99	14.27	5.82	3.33	77.71
Kidnapping/abduction	5.41	9.60	10.41	5.36	2.84	1.21	0.69	0.37	0.13	3.53
Armed robbery(b)	0.69	15.00	76.54	70.46	46.86	35.75	30.77	23.70	7.71	33.07
Unarmed robbery(b)	2.53	59.47	185.46	113.07	77.39	53.01	48.15	45.05	37.01	62.89
Blackmail/Extortion(b)	-	0.61	1.90	2.06	1.49	1.41	1.82	0.99	0.44	1.24
(a) Rate per 100,000 population. (b) For Robbery and Blackmail/Extortion where the victim can be an organisation, figures shown only include person victims. Source: Recorded Crime, Australia, 1998 (4510.0).

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