7,900 ACT residents experienced a theft from their motor vehicle in 2016-2017.
The risk of experiencing a theft from your car or malicious damage to your property is far higher in the ACT than the national average according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
However, Canberrans are no more likely to experience a break-in than the rest of the nation and the percentage of physical assaults in the ACT is slightly lower than the national average.
Figures on household and personal crime collected by the ABS Crime Victimisation survey show that 7,900 ACT residents experienced theft from a motor vehicle in 2016-2017 – or 5.3 per cent of householders. This is almost double the national rate of 2.8 per cent.
Malicious property damage figures were also high in the ACT, with 9,400 households in the ACT – or 6.3 per cent of households – experiencing malicious property damage in the last financial year. This is also significantly higher than the national rate of 5 per cent.
By contrast, only 2.5 per cent (3,700) of homes were broken into in the ACT in 2016-17 – sitting right on the national rate.
In terms of personal crime, 6,900 ACT residents experienced physical assault last financial year. This represents 2.2 per cent of the ACT population and is less than the national rate of 2.4 per cent.
Nationwide nearly half a million Australians aged 15 years and over (454,900) experienced one or more incidents of physical assault in 2016-17.
The Crime Victimisation survey found that men and women experienced physical assault at a similar rate (2.4 per cent of men and 2.3 per cent of women), with just over half reporting the most recent incident to police (52 per cent of men and 56 per cent of women).
“One in seven men (14 per cent or 31,500) who experienced physical assault felt that the incident was too trivial/unimportant to report to police,” said William Milne of the ABS’ National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics.
“A similar number of women (13 per cent or 30,100) who experienced physical assault felt that the incident was a personal matter and did not report.”
The Crime Victimisation publication provides information about people’s experiences for a selected range of personal and household crimes, including the socio-demographic characteristics of people experiencing the offences and whether the most recent incident was reported to police.
Do you think too many people are reluctant to report physical assaults? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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