15 January 2014

Crime on the run

| johnboy
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ACT Policing’s latest crime statistics show crime reports across the ACT dropped 10 per cent in the last year, following a five-year downward trend with property crime leading the way.

The ACT has seen a drop of a third in crime reports over the last five years from 43,139 in 2009 to 28,976 in 2013, excluding Traffic Infringement Notices and road fatalities or collisions with injury.

Reports of crimes against property have taken the steepest dive over the last five years with reports of motor vehicle theft down 66 per cent, burglary down 57 per cent, robbery down 54 per cent and theft down 28 per cent. Reports of property damage, which include damage by fire, explosion, graffiti and/or other methods, dropped 48 per cent.

Acting Chief Police Officer for the ACT, David Pryce, is pleased to see the continued reduction in crime across the ACT, which he attributes to joint ACT Government initiatives, ACT Policing’s crime reduction strategies and the support of the ACT community.

“The continued downward trend in crime is pleasing and demonstrates that our targeted crime reduction strategies are effective. However, we cannot take these results for granted and must continue to work together as a community to prevent and fight crime,” Acting Chief Police Officer Pryce said.

The ACT Government 2012-15 Property Crime Reduction Strategy has been in place since May 2012, building on the strong results of the previous property crime reduction strategy from 2004 to 2007. The strategy focuses on crime prevention within the community and diversion of recidivist and young offenders, and strong whole-of-Government collaboration between ACT Directorates.

“The support of the community is vital to ensuring continued crime reduction can be achieved. Community based activities such as ACT Neighbourhood Watch and ACT Crime Stoppers are two excellent examples of how active involvement of the community can help make the ACT one of the safest communities in Australia,” said Acting Chief Police Officer Pryce.

The latest crime statistics also show a drop of 14 per cent in reports of crime across the ACT when comparing the October to December quarter of 2013 to the same quarter in the previous year. This was led by a 28 per cent drop in reports of crime in Weston Creek, closely followed by a 27 per cent drop in Woden and a 21 per cent drop in Tuggeranong.

Members wishing to join or know more about ACT Neighbourhood Watch should visit its website at www.nhwact.com.au

Anyone with information about a crime can make a report to Crime Stoppers, anytime, on 1800 333 000 or via its website www.act.crimestoppers.com.au.

People contacting Crime Stoppers can choose to remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward payment of up to $1,000.

The latest interactive CrimeStatistics can be found at police.act.gov.au.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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poetix said :

They haven’t banned real estate agents.

A damn shame, that.

BimboGeek said :

Lockouts worked beautifully in Albury and then they went on to work beautifully in Newcastle.

Licensees may be legally responsible for the behaviour of customers after they leave the building but that’s so much easier to force if the customer doesn’t move out onto the street until he’s tired and ready to go home.

You may dispute the logic or the reasons but until 1am lockout, people were getting stabbed in Albury and Newcastle on weekends and now they are not. It could be possible to make an exception for “European” cafes and lounges serving alcohol in a relaxed, sit-down environment if there’s enough business to keep open past 1am in certain inner-city niches.

If one definition of insanity is continuing to do something that doesn’t work and expecting a different outcome, surely not doing something that demonstrably works is another.

Of course that ignores the fact that politicians are so far up the fundaments of the club and pub industry that all you can see is their boots sticking out.

JonnieWalker said :

CraigT said :

JonnieWalker said :

Another of my favorite ideas is that you charge $20 for a beer. .

Why?

I like beer, I even like drinking lotsa beer.

And guess what? I’ve never punched someone during a pissup.

So, instead of punishing thugs, you propose to punish drunks.

Why not think up ways to identify and remove *thugs* from our streets?

What happens when beers are $20? Who’s going to go out? What happens to society if people aren’t meeting. mixing, and supporting live music?

No music. In-breeding. Deeper tribalist fissures.

All because the anti-alcohol wowsers see this as an opportunity to inflict their mental illness on those around them.

okay, I knew $20 beers arent gonna work for everyone (although it seems to keep a lot of the riff raff out of the Hyatt on Friday nights).

They haven’t banned real estate agents.

JonnieWalker10:04 am 17 Jan 14

CraigT said :

JonnieWalker said :

Another of my favorite ideas is that you charge $20 for a beer. .

Why?

I like beer, I even like drinking lotsa beer.

And guess what? I’ve never punched someone during a pissup.

So, instead of punishing thugs, you propose to punish drunks.

Why not think up ways to identify and remove *thugs* from our streets?

What happens when beers are $20? Who’s going to go out? What happens to society if people aren’t meeting. mixing, and supporting live music?

No music. In-breeding. Deeper tribalist fissures.

All because the anti-alcohol wowsers see this as an opportunity to inflict their mental illness on those around them.

okay, I knew $20 beers arent gonna work for everyone (although it seems to keep a lot of the riff raff out of the Hyatt on Friday nights).

HardBallGets9:00 am 17 Jan 14

http://www.apolnet.ca/resources/pubs/Alcohol-NoOrdinary2-Summary.pdf

Alcohol regulation – what works isn’t popular; what’s popular doesn’t work.

Lockouts worked beautifully in Albury and then they went on to work beautifully in Newcastle.

Licensees may be legally responsible for the behaviour of customers after they leave the building but that’s so much easier to force if the customer doesn’t move out onto the street until he’s tired and ready to go home.

You may dispute the logic or the reasons but until 1am lockout, people were getting stabbed in Albury and Newcastle on weekends and now they are not. It could be possible to make an exception for “European” cafes and lounges serving alcohol in a relaxed, sit-down environment if there’s enough business to keep open past 1am in certain inner-city niches.

JonnieWalker said :

Another of my favorite ideas is that you charge $20 for a beer. .

Why?

I like beer, I even like drinking lotsa beer.

And guess what? I’ve never punched someone during a pissup.

So, instead of punishing thugs, you propose to punish drunks.

Why not think up ways to identify and remove *thugs* from our streets?

What happens when beers are $20? Who’s going to go out? What happens to society if people aren’t meeting. mixing, and supporting live music?

No music. In-breeding. Deeper tribalist fissures.

All because the anti-alcohol wowsers see this as an opportunity to inflict their mental illness on those around them.

JonnieWalker11:09 pm 16 Jan 14

JonnieWalker said :

JonnieWalker said :

c_c™ said :

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

Well that poor young guy who had his life support turned off was attacked at 9pm wasn’t he, so clearly people are loaded well before midnight. In fact the trend I’ve observed is all about ‘pre-drinks’, just about all the main uni events have pre-drinks now. Invariably pre-drinks seems to involve chugging down spirits and drinking glasses from cheap arse 4L casks of wine.

Choosing an arbitrary time to lock people out won’t do anything. Certainly wouldn’t have stopped the guys in high school who used to take some bottles of Jack down to Pine Island in the early hours and then vandalise Tuggers, including egging the Police station around 2am.

c_c™ said :

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

Well that poor young guy who had his life support turned off was attacked at 9pm wasn’t he, so clearly people are loaded well before midnight. In fact the trend I’ve observed is all about ‘pre-drinks’, just about all the main uni events have pre-drinks now. Invariably pre-drinks seems to involve chugging down spirits and drinking glasses from cheap arse 4L casks of wine.

Choosing an arbitrary time to lock people out won’t do anything. Certainly wouldn’t have stopped the guys in high school who used to take some bottles of Jack down to Pine Island in the early hours and then vandalise Tuggers, including egging the Police station around 2am.

That would have been me with the bottle of JD. I remember chugging down casks before school even finished. Could be that people start drinking earlier due to lock out but current ‘witching hour’ starts at around 2am and majority of problems go from there. You won’t stop assaults but as I said you will reduce them. Experience from other cities would suggest this anyway.

Another of my favorite ideas is that you charge $20 for a beer. They’ll have 2 before they are done and have to go home. I don’t mind paying $20 for a very occasional beer if it meansi don’t need to talk to some hair gel tattoo’d meathead. They’ll drink at home much cheaper with takeaway bottles and less likely to starta fight with tier meat head mates. .

Although this doesn’t stop said meathead from having a go with the missus

JonnieWalker11:07 pm 16 Jan 14

JonnieWalker said :

c_c™ said :

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

Well that poor young guy who had his life support turned off was attacked at 9pm wasn’t he, so clearly people are loaded well before midnight. In fact the trend I’ve observed is all about ‘pre-drinks’, just about all the main uni events have pre-drinks now. Invariably pre-drinks seems to involve chugging down spirits and drinking glasses from cheap arse 4L casks of wine.

Choosing an arbitrary time to lock people out won’t do anything. Certainly wouldn’t have stopped the guys in high school who used to take some bottles of Jack down to Pine Island in the early hours and then vandalise Tuggers, including egging the Police station around 2am.

c_c™ said :

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

Well that poor young guy who had his life support turned off was attacked at 9pm wasn’t he, so clearly people are loaded well before midnight. In fact the trend I’ve observed is all about ‘pre-drinks’, just about all the main uni events have pre-drinks now. Invariably pre-drinks seems to involve chugging down spirits and drinking glasses from cheap arse 4L casks of wine.

Choosing an arbitrary time to lock people out won’t do anything. Certainly wouldn’t have stopped the guys in high school who used to take some bottles of Jack down to Pine Island in the early hours and then vandalise Tuggers, including egging the Police station around 2am.

That would have been me with the bottle of JD. I remember chugging down casks before school even finished. Could be that people start drinking earlier due to lock out but current ‘witching hour’ starts at around 2am and majority of problems go from there. You won’t stop assaults but as I said you will reduce them. Experience from other cities would suggest this anyway.

Another of my favorite ideas is that you charge $20 for a beer. They’ll have 2 before they are done and have to go home. I don’t mind paying $20 for a very occasional beer if it meansi don’t need to talk to some hair gel tattoo’d meathead. They’ll drink at home much cheaper with takeaway bottles and less likely to starta fight with tier meat head mates. .

JonnieWalker11:02 pm 16 Jan 14

c_c™ said :

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

Well that poor young guy who had his life support turned off was attacked at 9pm wasn’t he, so clearly people are loaded well before midnight. In fact the trend I’ve observed is all about ‘pre-drinks’, just about all the main uni events have pre-drinks now. Invariably pre-drinks seems to involve chugging down spirits and drinking glasses from cheap arse 4L casks of wine.

Choosing an arbitrary time to lock people out won’t do anything. Certainly wouldn’t have stopped the guys in high school who used to take some bottles of Jack down to Pine Island in the early hours and then vandalise Tuggers, including egging the Police station around 2am.

c_c™ said :

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

Well that poor young guy who had his life support turned off was attacked at 9pm wasn’t he, so clearly people are loaded well before midnight. In fact the trend I’ve observed is all about ‘pre-drinks’, just about all the main uni events have pre-drinks now. Invariably pre-drinks seems to involve chugging down spirits and drinking glasses from cheap arse 4L casks of wine.

Choosing an arbitrary time to lock people out won’t do anything. Certainly wouldn’t have stopped the guys in high school who used to take some bottles of Jack down to Pine Island in the early hours and then vandalise Tuggers, including egging the Police station around 2am.

That would have been me with the bottle of JD. I remember chugging down casks before school even finished. Could be that people start drinking earlier due to lock out but current ‘witching hour’ starts at around 2am and majority of problems go from there. You won’t stop assaults but as I said you will reduce them. Experience from other cities would suggest this anyway.

JonnieWalker10:52 pm 16 Jan 14

Pork Hunt said :

Who the hell is jonnie walker? He has blown in from nowhere and is posting on every subject like there is no tomorrow. Earn your stripes you mouthpiece… Lol

I just took a well earned break.

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

Well that poor young guy who had his life support turned off was attacked at 9pm wasn’t he, so clearly people are loaded well before midnight. In fact the trend I’ve observed is all about ‘pre-drinks’, just about all the main uni events have pre-drinks now. Invariably pre-drinks seems to involve chugging down spirits and drinking glasses from cheap arse 4L casks of wine.

Choosing an arbitrary time to lock people out won’t do anything. Certainly wouldn’t have stopped the guys in high school who used to take some bottles of Jack down to Pine Island in the early hours and then vandalise Tuggers, including egging the Police station around 2am.

Who the hell is jonnie walker? He has blown in from nowhere and is posting on every subject like there is no tomorrow. Earn your stripes you mouthpiece… Lol

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

Why would you? C***s would simply go out two hours earlier than they used to and drink a similar amount of piss anyway…

johnboy said :

There’s a global trend of lowering crime being driven by many factors not least of which is ubiquitous survielance.

Not to mention reducing lead exposure

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

It is entirely possible that number fudging helps the better results.

Number fudging doesn’t work on surveys. Well, not unless the ABS is in on the game too. (Which they might be for inflation, GSP and un/employment, but crime being primarily a State issue I think they are unaffected by the will of their political masters).

IP

A_Cog said :

What a load of rubbish.

“The ACT has seen a drop of a third in crime reports over the last five years from 43,139 in 2009 to 28,976 in 2013, excluding Traffic Infringement Notices and road fatalities or collisions with injury.”
– changing which suburbs were included in the old Patrol Zones (remember them?), getting rid of Patrol Zones altogether, and changing stat categories helped twist these stats. 2012 crime numbers in my suburb were well over double my 2008 and 2009 numbers. The 2013 quarterly numbers released by ACT Policing frequently departed (were different, for some strange reason) from other sources.

“The continued downward trend in crime is pleasing and demonstrates that our targeted crime reduction strategies are effective…”
– or maybe, it’s the result of all the good work of Justice Nield, the NSW-import who thinks jails are for jailing.

“The latest crime statistics also show a drop of 14 per cent in reports of crime across the ACT when comparing the October to December quarter of 2013 to the same quarter in the previous year.”
– that’s because 2012 was a TRULY SHOCKING year. In some suburbs, 2012 numbers were nearly TRIPLE the numbers for 2008 or 2009, and my 2013 results for car theft broke the record. But hey, ACT Policing don’t provide the 2008 stats anymore, so unless you’ve been logging the results for years, you can’t see how bad things got in 2011 and 2012.

“Members wishing to join or know more about ACT Neighbourhood Watch should visit its website…”
– is this because ACT Policing ain’t gonna be much help with their SHOCKINGLY LOW CLEARANCES? And because the crims they do catch get let off by rubbish judges, or get let out of AMC asap under minimum non-parole periods because the AMC is over-crowded.

Almost everything you just said is complete bollocks.

Having said that, I take no notice of crime stats.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd5:51 pm 16 Jan 14

It is entirely possible that number fudging helps the better results.

There’s a global trend of lowering crime being driven by many factors not least of which is ubiquitous survielance.

JonnieWalker5:42 pm 16 Jan 14

IrishPete said :

HiddenDragon said :

Re JonnieWalker’s comments at #2 to #5 (which I am a little surprised by, but don’t need references to accept) is there a view as to why our assault rate is so relatively high? Could much, if any, of the difference between the ACT and other jurisdictions be attributed to a greater propensity here to report and record assaults?

Try the reference I provided for an answer to both questions. The survey found a higher assault rate in the ACT than in NSW and Vic, and just a little higher than WA, but a fair bit lower than NT.

As it’s a survey, it’s not affected by reporting to police and police recording.

You can also compare the proportions in the survey who said they reported the last assault to the police, but those results are bit more variable. There is little or no research in Australia on police recording.

(I am citing overall assault rates, which includes threats.)

IP

AIC also has some good reports – but comparing the stats directly from the different juristictions also provides similar results.

HiddenDragon said :

Re JonnieWalker’s comments at #2 to #5 (which I am a little surprised by, but don’t need references to accept) is there a view as to why our assault rate is so relatively high? Could much, if any, of the difference between the ACT and other jurisdictions be attributed to a greater propensity here to report and record assaults?

Try the reference I provided for an answer to both questions. The survey found a higher assault rate in the ACT than in NSW and Vic, and just a little higher than WA, but a fair bit lower than NT.

As it’s a survey, it’s not affected by reporting to police and police recording.

You can also compare the proportions in the survey who said they reported the last assault to the police, but those results are bit more variable. There is little or no research in Australia on police recording.

(I am citing overall assault rates, which includes threats.)

IP

JonnieWalker5:12 pm 16 Jan 14

JonnieWalker said :

maxblues said :

gazket said :

Teenagers don’t bother robbing houses any more, it’s too much work. They just walk down the street pull out a knife and get a smart phone and wallet with instant cash.

Johnnie Walker Blue will have us closing down churches soon!

+1 to that!!

reducing alcohol conspumtion wouldnt be the only way to drive down anti-social behaviour, robberies and assaults – just one of easiest and most acceptable. I’d say mandatory sentencing and corporal punishment would also do the job but no deoderant dodging greenie voter is going to vote Jonnie Walker in on that platform in canberra

JonnieWalker5:01 pm 16 Jan 14

maxblues said :

gazket said :

Teenagers don’t bother robbing houses any more, it’s too much work. They just walk down the street pull out a knife and get a smart phone and wallet with instant cash.

Johnnie Walker Blue will have us closing down churches soon!

+1 to that!!

gazket said :

Teenagers don’t bother robbing houses any more, it’s too much work. They just walk down the street pull out a knife and get a smart phone and wallet with instant cash.

Yes, that happened near a church in Holt recently. Johnnie Walker Blue will have us closing down churches soon, and it must be petrol-sniffing that causes service station robberies!

JonnieWalker4:31 pm 16 Jan 14

HiddenDragon said :

Re JonnieWalker’s comments at #2 to #5 (which I am a little surprised by, but don’t need references to accept) is there a view as to why our assault rate is so relatively high? Could much, if any, of the difference between the ACT and other jurisdictions be attributed to a greater propensity here to report and record assaults?

Also – many people dont see assaults if you a) dont hang out in civic on friday nights and b) arnt responding to domestics (many of which also happen after boozy nights)

JonnieWalker4:26 pm 16 Jan 14

A_Cog said :

What a load of rubbish.

“The ACT has seen a drop of a third in crime reports over the last five years from 43,139 in 2009 to 28,976 in 2013, excluding Traffic Infringement Notices and road fatalities or collisions with injury.”
– changing which suburbs were included in the old Patrol Zones (remember them?), getting rid of Patrol Zones altogether, and changing stat categories helped twist these stats. 2012 crime numbers in my suburb were well over double my 2008 and 2009 numbers. The 2013 quarterly numbers released by ACT Policing frequently departed (were different, for some strange reason) from other sources.

“The continued downward trend in crime is pleasing and demonstrates that our targeted crime reduction strategies are effective…”
– or maybe, it’s the result of all the good work of Justice Nield, the NSW-import who thinks jails are for jailing.

“The latest crime statistics also show a drop of 14 per cent in reports of crime across the ACT when comparing the October to December quarter of 2013 to the same quarter in the previous year.”
– that’s because 2012 was a TRULY SHOCKING year. In some suburbs, 2012 numbers were nearly TRIPLE the numbers for 2008 or 2009, and my 2013 results for car theft broke the record. But hey, ACT Policing don’t provide the 2008 stats anymore, so unless you’ve been logging the results for years, you can’t see how bad things got in 2011 and 2012.

“Members wishing to join or know more about ACT Neighbourhood Watch should visit its website…”
– is this because ACT Policing ain’t gonna be much help with their SHOCKINGLY LOW CLEARANCES? And because the crims they do catch get let off by rubbish judges, or get let out of AMC asap under minimum non-parole periods because the AMC is over-crowded.

A lot of problems using police stats – ask a copper what they think of crime stats and how realistic they are.

JonnieWalker4:23 pm 16 Jan 14

HiddenDragon said :

Re JonnieWalker’s comments at #2 to #5 (which I am a little surprised by, but don’t need references to accept) is there a view as to why our assault rate is so relatively high? Could much, if any, of the difference between the ACT and other jurisdictions be attributed to a greater propensity here to report and record assaults?

It is really difficult to find stats comparing apples with apples (you sometimes need to get different stats from different reports from different years), and there are other complications for example ACT is primarily metro, and difficult to compare with NSW and this can’t be extrapolated to Sydney, but my view is as follows:
Taking NT out of the picture when we compare ACT we are talking about very small but all metro with less distinction within that metro area than Sydney. Comparisons are difficult on both a state and city level, and there is not a lot of faith in using police stats by themselves (plenty of articles on this) but i think using Canberra demographics to show a general trend towards assaults in new demographics will skew the numbers a bit. eg assault rates in women demographics and social class demographics increasing. – If you took the same demographics from Sydney you might get a similar response although policing and court approaches are a little different between states.

Research shows that longer custodial sentences dont work as a deterrent. The biggest factor in deterrence is (based on correlations) 1) the chance of the offender getting cought and 2) the chance of a custodial sentence (regardless of the length of the sentence).

NYC has had a really low rate compared to their high rate of the 80s due to better community policing, mandatory sentencing and various other initiaties – although there is a lot of arguement on why NYC rates have been brought down from the hights of the 80s.

Teenagers don’t bother robbing houses any more, it’s too much work. They just walk down the street pull out a knife and get a smart phone and wallet with instant cash.

HiddenDragon2:38 pm 16 Jan 14

Re JonnieWalker’s comments at #2 to #5 (which I am a little surprised by, but don’t need references to accept) is there a view as to why our assault rate is so relatively high? Could much, if any, of the difference between the ACT and other jurisdictions be attributed to a greater propensity here to report and record assaults?

What a load of rubbish.

“The ACT has seen a drop of a third in crime reports over the last five years from 43,139 in 2009 to 28,976 in 2013, excluding Traffic Infringement Notices and road fatalities or collisions with injury.”
– changing which suburbs were included in the old Patrol Zones (remember them?), getting rid of Patrol Zones altogether, and changing stat categories helped twist these stats. 2012 crime numbers in my suburb were well over double my 2008 and 2009 numbers. The 2013 quarterly numbers released by ACT Policing frequently departed (were different, for some strange reason) from other sources.

“The continued downward trend in crime is pleasing and demonstrates that our targeted crime reduction strategies are effective…”
– or maybe, it’s the result of all the good work of Justice Nield, the NSW-import who thinks jails are for jailing.

“The latest crime statistics also show a drop of 14 per cent in reports of crime across the ACT when comparing the October to December quarter of 2013 to the same quarter in the previous year.”
– that’s because 2012 was a TRULY SHOCKING year. In some suburbs, 2012 numbers were nearly TRIPLE the numbers for 2008 or 2009, and my 2013 results for car theft broke the record. But hey, ACT Policing don’t provide the 2008 stats anymore, so unless you’ve been logging the results for years, you can’t see how bad things got in 2011 and 2012.

“Members wishing to join or know more about ACT Neighbourhood Watch should visit its website…”
– is this because ACT Policing ain’t gonna be much help with their SHOCKINGLY LOW CLEARANCES? And because the crims they do catch get let off by rubbish judges, or get let out of AMC asap under minimum non-parole periods because the AMC is over-crowded.

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

And I bet that if the judiciary did their f**king job we wouldn’t have such a high rate either

JonnieWalker said :

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

Is it fully landscaped and conveniently located near a pub or club?

JonnieWalker11:58 am 16 Jan 14

I’d bet my house that if you close down pubs and clubs at midnight you would see a decrease in both property crime and assults

JonnieWalker11:49 am 16 Jan 14

JonnieWalker said :

Forgot to mention – a majority of these assults happen in or around licensed premises.

Not to take away from the good work white ribbon does against domestic violence – which for the most part probably doesnt get reported unfortunatly.

JonnieWalker11:48 am 16 Jan 14

Forgot to mention – a majority of these assults happen in or around licensed premises.

JonnieWalker11:47 am 16 Jan 14

It shows some promise. The assault rate is what is killing us though. ACT has the highest assult rate a in Australia after NT (on a state by state basis) – and although I’m sure Potts Point in Sydney has a high rate Canberra has a higher rate of assult than Sydney.

Of course Canberra, and Australia more widely has a higher assult rate (per capita) than NYC which is about a third of ours (not accounting for gun crime or murders). Let me know if anyone needs references.

That’s great.

The most recent ABS Crime Victimisation Survey http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4530.02011-12?OpenDocument concurs, with significant reductions in break and enter and malicious damage in recent years (it only goes up to 2011-12 but a new report should be released soon.

However, it does suggest that break-ins have been partly replaced with attempted break-ins (or that some malicious damage is now being reported in the survey as attempted break-in). As there have been significant (in both senses of the word) reductions in the reporting of attempted break-ins, that could help explain a surprisingly dramatic reduction in reported crime.

This crime survey doesn’t measure the amount of crime well, but can measure trends in crime and in reporting of it – it only reports where people have been a victim at least once (it doesn’t easily give a full count of the number of incidents) and also doesn’t formally include businesses and government. And obviously excludes a whole range of crimes that police include in their stats.

IP

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