Men have been warned police will be knocking on doors this Christmas after crime hit a 20-year state high led by a surge in family violence.
The number of criminal incidents recorded in the year to September 30 was 431,683, up 15 per cent on the same period in 2023, Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency revealed on Thursday.
It’s the highest record of criminal incidents since the agency began reporting 20 years ago.
Police also made the most arrests since 2005, nabbing 26,640 people a total of 70,863 times – an average of 194 arrests a day.
Family violence has reached its highest-ever levels in Victoria, while theft and youth crime are also peaking.
Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations Neil Paterson said Victoria had recorded 100,000 family violence incidents for the first time in an “unwanted milestone”.
A fifth of all crime in the state was connected to family violence, with 102,082 incidents.
“That means police are out there responding to family violence incidents at a rate of 280 a day, or 12 incidents every hour, or one incident every five minutes across this state,” Mr Paterson told reporters.
He said family violence incidents tended to increase sharply at Christmas, with police responding to 372 incidents on December 25, 2023, compared to the yearly daily average of 279.
Mr Patterson said officers would be checking in on known offenders in the lead-up to Christmas and urged people to look out for warning signs their friends or family could be a victim.
Theft from motor vehicles, particularly number plates and power tools, recorded the greatest year-on-year increase, followed by theft from shops, theft in general and vehicle theft.
Meat, fresh produce, cosmetics and vitamins were among the most common items stolen from grocery stores.
“Inflation, cost-of-living pressures and high interest rates (are) driving record levels of alcohol and grocery theft,” Mr Patterson said.
Crime by children aged 10 to 17 reached its highest level in 15 years, with 23,810 incidents, up 17 per cent on the previous year.
“Our intelligence reveals that around 40 per cent of all car thieves are children or youth,” Mr Patterson said.
The statistics are the first released since Victoria Police members started strike action in November in an ongoing, bitter pay battle currently before the Fair Work Commission.
Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said crime was climbing as officer numbers declined by 1700, leaving those on the job “hopelessly” under-resourced and underpaid.
“The government and Victoria Police need to get their heads out of the sand and respond to this,” he said.
“There is a crisis on their doorstep. These figures show that.”
He said the judicial system needed strengthening to get repeat youth offenders off the streets and free up officers for preventative policing.
Opposition police spokesman Brad Battin said a car was stolen every 20 minutes in Victoria.
He blamed the problem on youth crime.
A major concern for Victoria in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, youth crime declined due to lockdowns but has been growing in the years since.
It was an election issue in the Northern Territory and Queensland, with new conservative governments in both jurisdictions introducing harsher penalties for offenders.
In Queensland, Premier David Crisafulli introduced new “adult crime, adult time” laws earlier in December.
In the NT, spit hoods have been re-introduced for police use after being banned following a royal commission into the Don Dale detention centre and the age of criminal responsibility has been dropped back to 10.
Figures released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research earlier in December showed that recorded crime across 13 major categories remained stable in the two years to the end of September.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
