Stealing still tops crime bill
Australian, Page: 5. Wednesday, 1 April, 2009
Old habits die hard. Theft remains Australia’s most common crime, just as it was among the country’s first convicts.
In its annual findings released yesterday, the Australian Crime Report says there were more than 500,000 victims of theft during the 2007 survey period.
Five per cent of the population 806,000 Australians were victims of credit card fraud or scams.
Assault was the most common violent crime, with 176,427 victims recorded. The majority of offenders were male.
The number of homicides fell during 2007 to its lowest level in 12 years, with 282 victims in the year compared with 322 the previous year.
Property crime also declined to its lowest level over the same period.
Knives were the preferred weapon of choice for murderers and armed robbers. Forty-seven per cent of armed robberies in 2007 were committed with a knife, compared with 15 per cent that involved a firearm. Syringes were a weapon in 3 per cent of armed robbery cases.
The number of sexual assaults rose to 19,781 in 2007 from 14,542 in 1996, most occurring in residential locations, the report said.
The country’s jails are also filling up, with 27,244 people behind bars as of June 30, 2007, when the Australian Institute of Criminology report was prepared.
Drug arrests for cannabis and heroin fell by 18 per cent and 70 per cent respectively but arrests for amphetamines more than tripled, increasing by 260 per cent. As in past years, the vast majority of those arrested for drug-related crime were consumers - 81 per cent. Males are three times as likely as females to resort to criminal acts.
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