Recorded offences

The information outlined in this section represents all offences recorded in the Police Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) database, where Victoria Police have recorded a crime prohibited by criminal law. These include crimes that have been reported to police as well as those identified by police.

Key movements in the number and rate of offences

Victorian offence rate per 100,000 population, 10 year trend

In the last 12 months the number of recorded offences decreased by 8,515 offences, the lowest since the year ending September 2015. The rate per 100,000 population decreased by 3.9% to the lowest rates since the year ending September 2014. Over the last 10 years the number of recorded offences has increased 33.5% (127,721 offences) from 380,876 offences in the year ending September 2009.

Offences Recorded – Data Visualisation

Please note that movements in recorded crime data, especially at the code level may be impacted by changes in legislation and operational police practice. Information is available about these changes in the Explanatory Notes, please refer to this information when comparing data over time.

For instructions on how to use the visualisation please download the 'Guide for use' PDF at the end of this page.

Number of recorded offences by the type of offence

24 month trend testing – recorded offences

The CSA uses a 24 month trend test on each offence subdivision and Local Government Area to highlight changes that are statistically significant. The CSA uses the Kendall’s Rank Order Correlation statistical test (or Kendall‘s tau-b) to determine whether a series is trending upwards or downwards over the two years. For more information on the trend test please see the Explanatory Notes and for the full data set, please see the offences data tables in Appendix 4 and Appendix 5.
The major offence categories that showed significant upward trends for recorded offences were:

•  Breaches of orders (up 5.2% from 57,354 to 60,311)

The major offence categories that showed significant downward trends for recorded offences were:

• Property damage (down 2.4% from 41,608 to 40,591)
• Burglary/Break and enter (down 14.0% from 49,018 to 42,170)
• Disorderly and offensive conduct (down 5.5% from 16,545 to 15,639)

All other major offence categories did not show a significant trend over the last 24 months.

Notable movements – recorded offences

In the last 12 months recorded offences of Crimes against the person decreased by 0.1% (78 offences). This was driven by a 2.5% (363 offences) decrease in Sexual offences to 14,192 offences in the year ending September 2018. Assault and related offences made up the largest proportion of Crimes against the person offences (54.8%) followed by Sexual offences (17.7%) and Stalking, harassment and threatening behaviour (14.8%).

The number of Property and deception offences recorded decreased by 11,631 offences (3.9%) in the last 12 months. This was primarily driven by a 14.0% (6,848 offences) decrease in Burglary/Break and enter to 42,170 offences in the year ending September 2018. The overall counts of Property and deception offences are the lowest since the year ending September 2015.

Compared to the previous year, the number of recorded offences of Drug offences increased by 5.0% (1,453 offences) to 30,624 offences. This was driven by Drug use and possession which increased by 4.8% (1,136 offences) to 24,584 offences in the year ending September 2018.

The number of recorded offences of Justice procedures offences increased by 3.9% (2,744 offences) to 72,616 in the last 12 months. This was driven by a 5.2% (2,957 offences) increase in Breaches of orders to 60,311 offences.

Please note that movements in recorded crime data, especially at the offence code level may be impacted by changes in legislation and operational police practice. Information is available about notable changes in the Explanatory Notes, refer to this information when comparing data over time.

Victorian offences recorded by offence category and quarter

5 year trend – recorded offences

In the five years to September 2018 the number of recorded of Property and deception offences has fluctuated with a peak in the year ending September 2016. While these offence types have decreased in the last two years the number of recorded offences has increased by 4.9% (13,467 offences) since the year ending September 2014. In the year ending September 2018 the number of offences recorded for Property Damage (40,591 offences) and Burglary/Break & Enter (42,170 offences) were the lowest in the CSA data holdings, which go back to July 2004.

Victorian offences recorded by offence category, 5 year trend

Proportion of Victorian offences recorded by offence category, 5 year trend

Regional profile

• Melbourne (21,172.6 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, down 6.6%)
• Latrobe (19,358.2 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 5.5%)
• Horsham (15,217.3 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 21.6%)
• Yarra (14,287.2 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, down 4.6%)
• Greater Shepparton (13,132.2 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 7.4%).

Family violence related offences

Victorian offences recorded by whether family incident related, 5 year trend

In the last 12 months the proportion of recorded offences related to a family incident increased from 17.5% to 17.8%. The overall numbers remained stable with an increase of 0.1% (120 offences) from 90,573 to 90,693 family violence related offences. 

Investigation status

Investigation status indicates how the offences has been dealt with by Victoria Police at the time data was extracted from the LEAP database. This status represents information at a point in time and is subject to change. For more information, please refer to the Glossary and Data Dictionary.

Almost half of all offences recorded in the last 12 months (46.8% or 238,210 offences) had resulted in an Arrest/Summons while over a third were unsolved (39.4% or 200,306 offences) at the time of data extraction.

The majority (80.1%) of Justice procedures offences resulted in an Arrest/Summons in the year ending September 2018 (58,176 offences). In contrast almost two thirds (61.6%) of offences recorded in the category of Property and deception offences were Unsolved (177,915 offences). Of the offences recorded in the category of Crimes against the person over half resulted in an Arrest/Summons (43,141 offences).

Victorian offences recorded by investigation status, year ending September 2018

Other includes: Penalty infringement notice, caution not authorised, complaint withdrawn, notice to appear, no offence disclosed, not authorised, offender processed, warrant issued, summons not authorised, presentment and other statuses.