State wide figures
- The number of offences recorded by police in the year to 31 March 2017 was 543,391. This is up 4% from 522,677 offences recorded in the same period last year.
- Family incidents increased in the year to 31 March 2017, up 1.6% from 76,520 to 77,721.
- There were 181,147 offender incidents recorded, up 10.1% from 164,554 in the year to March 2016.
- Victim reports increased in the year to 31 March 2017 by 7.6% to 333,911 victim reports.
Offence trends
From April 2015 – March 2017, the major offence categories that showed the highest significant upward trends were:
- Assault and related offences (up 7.9% from 40,551 to 43,765)
- Robbery (up 19.6% from 2,753 to 3,293)
- Dangerous and negligent acts endangering people (up 20.2% from 5,055 to 6,076)
- Theft (up 9.3% from 173,021 to 189,191)
- Justice procedures (up 20.0% from 11,069 to 13,285)
- Transport regulation offences (up 58.4% from 543 to 860)
From April 2015 – March 2017, one offence subdivision showed a significant downward trend:
- Drug dealing and trafficking (down 11.4% from 5,360 to 4,749)
Local Government Area level figures
The five Local Government Areas with the highest offence rates were:
- Melbourne (25,325.9 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, down 0.8%)
- Latrobe (19,631.8 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 7.0%)
- Yarra (14,527.3 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, down 1.8%)
- Ararat (13,662.3 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 11.6%)
- Greater Shepparton (13,150.4 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 6.3%)
For explanatory information and definitions for the latest release, see the explanatory notes and glossary