Every quarter, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research publishes an update of the levels and trends of major crimes in the state. The data shows that many major crimes are on a downward trend when assessed against the last five years. Read on to discover which criminal offences have increased and which have decreased!
Changes in criminal offences over the last five years
Two offences which have gone against the trend five-year trend and increased in their offending rate include ‘domestic violence-related assault’, and ‘sexual assault’. It has been suggested that the increased occurrence of these types of offence may have resulted from an increased social awareness of their occurrence, especially given the prominent reporting of sexual assault and domestic violence cases in the media. The trend of a decrease in crime levels over the past five years aligns with longer-term analysis of criminal behaviour, as the incident rate of violent offences has dropped by almost a third since high in 2002, while the incident rate of property offences has dropped by over two thirds.
In the five years to December 2022, the following changes have occurred in the level of recorded criminal incidents for major offences:
- Murder, down 5.6%
- Domestic violence related assault, up 3%
- Non-domestic violence related assault, trend has remained stable
- Sexual assault, up 7%
- Sexual touching, sexual act and other sexual offences, trend has remained stable
- Robbery, down 7.5%
- Break and enter dwelling, down 8.4%
- Motor vehicle theft, down 1.6%
- Steal from motor vehicle, down 8.1%
- Steal from retail store, down 2.7%
- Other stealing offences, down 8.7%
- Malicious damage to property, down 4.7%
Changes in the last two years
When the data is used to analyse more recent trends over the past two years, two other categories of offence appear to have had the most significant increase – ‘motor vehicle theft’, and ‘steal from retail’. However, it should be noted that the recent increase in vehicle and retail theft follow large declines in these offences during 2020 and 2021 coinciding with the pandemic. Crime volumes for both offences appear to be returning to pre-pandemic levels, resulting in their apparent surge over the past two years.
Interesting trends in Criminal offences
There have also been some interesting movements of niche and obscure crimes, especially in comparison to the overall downward trend in most criminal offences. Over the 2 years leading to December 2022, there was an average annual percentage increase of 548.8% in the level of ‘blackmail and extortion’. Similarly, charges of ‘possession and/or use of ecstasy’ increased by an average of 64.8% while similar charges for all other drugs either fell or remained stable. In the five years leading to December 2022, a number of offences against justice procedures experienced major spikes in their occurrence, with ‘fail to appear’ (for a court date) experiencing a 15.5% spike, while ‘escape custody’ is up 8.8%.
Good news for The Shire
While the previous information comes from all areas state-wide, BOCSAR also publishes statistics for certain areas within NSW. The Sutherland statistical area (which includes all of the Sutherland Shire east of Holsworthy) saw no major increases in crime rates over the past two years, and has experienced a 27.7% drop in ‘break and enter dwelling’ offences, a 34.2% drop in ‘motor vehicle theft’, and a 26% drop in ‘other stealing offences’.
Conclusion
The information we have covered represents only a small portion of the available information. We have presented it to highlight the ways in which societal changes and trends can influence the criminal justice system. In addition, solid evidence like this can counter widely-held narratives about society becoming less safe, or more violent. However, despite any large-scale societal trends that may be taking place, it must be remembered that there are still many people suffering the impacts of these crimes or being charged with these offences without realising the dire implications. If you or your loved ones need any assistance in navigating the criminal law system, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Brady and Associates Lawyers today.
