Latest statistics released by the Crime Statistics Agency highlight the downward trend in property damage offences that have occurred across Victoria in the past five years.
In the year ending 31 March 2016, Victoria Police recorded 43,641 property damage offences across the state, an offence rate of 720.9 offences per 100,000 people in Victoria. In five years the number of property damage offences has decreased by 10.5%, down from 48,778 offences in the year ending 31 March 2012.
The North West Metro region has consistently had the highest number of property damage offences. In 2016, the Local Government Areas within the North West Metro region with the highest number of recorded offences were Melbourne (1,770), Hume (1,689), Brimbank (1,517), Whittlesea (1,278) and Wyndham (1,195).
However, accounting for population figures, the Local Government Areas across Victoria with the highest rate of property damage offences per 100,000 population were Horsham (2,725.5), Latrobe (2,202.9), Northern Grampians (1441.2), Glenelg (1,312.0) and Benalla (1,305.1).
Of the 43,641 property damage offences that were recorded in the year ending 31 March, 48.1% (20,972) took place at a residential location, 33.5% (14,610) were recorded at a community location, and 15.1% (6,574) at a other location, with the remaining 3.4% (1,485) having a missing or unknown location type.
As at 18 April 2016, 60.5% (26,415) of property damage offences remained unsolved. There were 16.6% (7,266) of offences that resulted in an arrest and 12.4% (5,404) of offences resulted in a summons being issued.
The proportion of victims of property damage were evenly split between males (33.7% or 12,677 victim reports) and females (32.9% or 12,357 victim reports). Businesses comprised 31.1% of all victim reports in the year ending March 2016, with business victims decreasing by 17.9% compared to the same period five years ago.
More information on property damage offences can be found here, in this quarter’s spotlight.