VIC:Violent crime rising in Vic

AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-2011
VIC:Violent crime rising in Vic

By Kellee Nolan

MELBOURNE, Aug 30 AAP - Victoria's rape, sex offence, robbery, armed robbery and assault
rates are all up on last year, new police crime statistics show.

But most of the rise in violent crimes is accounted for by family-related incidents.

The Victoria Police Crime Statistics 2010/2011 released on Tuesday show the number
of rapes to be up 9.3 per cent, the number of other sex offences up 5.8 per cent, robberies
up 8 per cent, armed robberies up 10.6 per cent and assaults up 5.3 per cent.

The only type of violent crime to decrease is homicide, which fell 26 per cent.

The figures show the total number of violent crimes had increased 5.6 per cent.

But police say most of this increase was accounted for by family-related crimes, which
made up one quarter of all violent crime, increasing 26 per cent over the last year, compared
to a 0.1 per cent increase in non-family related violent crimes.

Police said there had been a steady rise in the reporting of family incidents since
the introduction of a new police investigation code in 2004 and family violence protection
laws in 2008.

This had led to increased reporting and rates of family incidents such as assaults and abduction.

Acting Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said the rise in family crime was "worrying" and
that 30 per cent of all assaults happened in the home, making it the most common place
for assaults to occur.

"I think if you ask most people where you're likely to get assaulted, you'd probably
say a railway station or the street, but the truth is, particularly if you're a woman
or a child, you're more than likely to get assaulted in the home," he told ABC Radio.

The police crime figures show the number of home burglaries and drug offences each
rose less than one per cent and property damage decreased 8 per cent.

Mr Lay said police suspected offenders were shifting their focus from home burglaries
to theft on the street.

"So traditionally we saw lots of TVs and videos and the like being stolen, well ...

they're a lot cheaper than they once were, so people are now starting to actually rob
people of mobile phones and iPhones and the like," he said.

"So we suspect there's actually a little shift from the traditional burglaries to actually
the crimes against the person and that's why we're seeing the increase in that area."

Theft of motor vehicles fell 4.6 per cent and theft from motor vehicles fell 1.7 per cent.

However, theft of number plates rose almost 12 per cent.

Overall the number of crimes fell 2.4 per cent and over the last 10 years, the number
fell 18.9 per cent, which as a percentage of the population, equates to a drop of almost
30 per cent in the overall crime rate in the last 10 years.

AAP kn/gfr/dep

KEYWORD: CRIME VIC

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