Is Canberra Crime Getting worse?

I’ve lived in Kambah since 2002 and so far it seems like it’s not really any more dangerous (or safer for that matter) than anywhere else I’ve been in Canberra. Maybe Kambah exports its crime to other places in Canberra.

3 places not to buy

Kambah
Charnwood
Oaks Estate

2604 said :

This is a bit off-topic, but does anyone know where to find crime statistics by suburb in Canberra?

We are looking for a family home and want to make sure that the area is relatively free of crime (violent and petty) before purchasing.

I know I would move back to Duffy in an instant, You don’t really hear of much happening there lately, I think all the shit is down South side, which is where I currently live.
We bought a house 7 years ago and it’s just in the last 3 years I have found things are starting to get worse round here.

I know crime is everywhere but there is a lot of young families here because it’s a bit cheaper.

So don’t buy South side.

Poverty doesn’t care about skin colour, even if we do.

Ralph said :

The question you need to be asking is: Who is committing these violent crimes? That you will find most illuminating. Same goes for the United States, but even more illuminating. And before DMD and Woody start screeching, I know, it be caused by white man oppression, and modernity.

Similar situation here, although it’s a less worse, because we don’t arm our poor.

Indeed, and chains caused slavery.

Thats easy…. mostly its young males from a lower socio-economic background. Drugs are also a major influence.
This is true of every country, and if you look closer the age of the males involved is starting to lower (13-25 instead of 16-25 a few years back)

There isn’t actually a direct correlation between rates of gun ownership and violent crime globally. High ownership of guns doesn’t automatically mean high rates of violent crime – quite the opposite in many places. The UK, where guns are vurtually banned by law, has a high rate of violent/gun crime. Male, poor, drugs. Those are they key factors.

I’m sure some PC clown will start sqwawking about race.

Well I lived in PNG for 2 years and we had security cameras in the house, electric gates, six foot high fences with barbed wire, two way radio, one bedroom lined with steel completely, bars on all windows and security fire doors with three locks including dead locks, two guard dogs. Nothing scares me now, if the natives want to get in they used to axe their way in regardless if your home or not, never happened to us as we treated the locals with respect, mind you, you would never walk anywhere, always in the car with all doors locked

Here’s the biggest crime of all…which isn’t even officially classified as such: The Super Fund

Also there is a greater fear of ‘visceral’ risks. Things like shark attacks, abduction, violent crime and the like (gruesome, scary etc), seem scarier than driving a car, smoking etc (familiar, common-place, yet more likely to kill us). The fear we have of visceral risks can be totally out of proportion, e.g. we are all more likely to die of a car crash driving to the south coast than from a shark attack there, yet many would fear the shark attack more.

2604, neighbourhood watch used to publish crime stats, but now they are only in the newsletters in suburbs that still have neighbourhood watch.

I would avoid houses very close to government flats, or close to major shopping centres like Kippax, Dickson or Southlands. Otherwise I think almost every area is ok.

Agreed Swaggie. If you decide to be a ratbag as a one off, you’re practically guaranteed not to get a custodial sentence in this town.

and there’s a growing awareness that if you don’t mind getting nicked by the cops there’s not much to be worried about from the judiciary, a slap on the wrist,a jolly good talking to and that’s about as bad as it gets. Not much of a deterrent.

WMC, it’s because they (at least Saudi) have no problems putting people to death who break the law.

Really? Well, I never. That doesn’t gel at all with the picture of Muslims that Ralph painted for me. I was assured they were uncivilised savages loosely collected into roving gangs of murderous thugs with no concept of ‘laws’. And now you’re telling me that not only do they frown on lawbreaking, but they have capital punishment as well? Between that and their awesome wealth, why, they’re practically Republicans!

Re buying a house based on crime rates: (1) criminals have access to transport and Canberra isn’t that big, (2) I don’t think we have enough crime for many of our statistics to be statistically significant and (3) a lot of crime has a personal element, particularly with crime against persons (as opposed to property), so you’re not likely to be the victim on a random basis.

I find it funny that we talk about how horrible American crime is, but my inlaws don’t even lock their doors when they’re at home (as many people in AU do) and they were in SoCal. Oh, and their house has never been broken into, they’ve not been assaulted or shot, and the only crime that has happened to them was that my m-i-l’s car was stolen in the 1980s, though she got it back fairly quickly. The crime in America is (from talking to Americans) very localised and the idea of them being constantly in fear of their lives is completely off the mark.

2604 said :

This is a bit off-topic, but does anyone know where to find crime statistics by suburb in Canberra?

We are looking for a family home and want to make sure that the area is relatively free of crime (violent and petty) before purchasing.

Every area has it’s good and bad no matter where in Canberra. Going for a drive in the respective street/area will usually give a good idea as to what is living there ??!!

WMC, it’s because they (at least Saudi) have no problems putting people to death who break the law. Also there is a lot of family honor which is more powerful than the law. (aka you don’t want to bring shame upon your family)

2604, basically anywhere in Canberra and you should be fine. We don’t really have the “No Go” area’s like say Sydney or Melbourne has.

This is a bit off-topic, but does anyone know where to find crime statistics by suburb in Canberra?

We are looking for a family home and want to make sure that the area is relatively free of crime (violent and petty) before purchasing.

Another couple of questions for you Ralph, if you’re not too busy bearing the white man’s burden:

If non-white people are so violent, how come a diverse society like Australia has a lower murder rate than somewhere ‘pure’, like Finland or Iceland? If Muslims are such murderous fiends, why do Saudi Arabia and Qatar have the lowest murder rates in the world?

I think it just comes from living in the trailer park!

; )

Granny, how did you become so wise?

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

Why would the media want us all to be petrified in our homes?

So they can keep us glued to the screen/newspaper/website, on which advertising is sold.

Over the past 20 or so years, the mainstream media really have gone from reporting the news to fearmongering.

EXACTLY. Their not even hiding it …. sometimes it is blatant fearmongering and you see it the most on the various current affair programs the most.

The sad thing is the media used to be about getting the truth to the people, hence freedom of the press (that they love to preach) The problem is the media is no longer believed by the public ?? They have lost touch with what they are meant to be 🙁

“Is Canberra crime getting worse?”

No

Argument ends

Canberra seems to go through crime cycles. A few years back we had a few rock throwings, & bus vandalism. Last December we had attacks on 16 year old males & now abductions.

In a few months a new crime will start up in Canberra.

I think fear also comes from the fact that most people know someone who know someone who’s had a daughter snatched from a bus shelter by four men and been raped, or a sister who was dragged behind the bushes and raped at knife point, or some similar story.

It’s like when you’re pregnant and everybody has to tell you about every horror delivery that they’ve ever heard of.

That takes it from something that happened to a faceless statistic that has nothing to do with you, to flesh and blood people that could be you.

For instance, how many kids at school actually know the kids it’s happened to and go home and say, “Guess what?” to mum and dad? So then you have a whole suburb or district worried, because that suddenly becomes personal.

And then how many people work with those parents who are worried that there was an abduction attempt made on a kid at their school, with the perpetrator still out there who might be in their area and might do it again? They then become personally involved with supporting and advising these parents.

Traumatic events do tend to affect a whole community, and the more shocking the event the more pronounced the ripple will be.

No matter how unlikely lightning may be to strike in the same place twice, when it strikes it does have an impact and it does create fear.

I think this should be acknowledged and some kind of post-trauma counseling measures employed on behalf of the community to smooth life out and reassure them that they are still just as safe as before.

People are wondering, “What does this mean for me and my family?” and if you don’t fill that information vaccuum with the most likely scenario it seems to be human nature to fill it with the worst case scenario.

MrPC said :

Regardless of whether it’s better or worse, the overall rate is so low that it’s likely it will never affect you in any meaningful way. Go visit some really scummy countries like the USA and you might experience what it’s truly like to live in fear all day every day.

Mr PC i’ve visited the USA and didn’t live in fear nor do i live in fear in the ACT, however the question is relevant and so far it looks like the media has increased its exposure to crime. crime sells

MrPC, I’m planning on visiting the good ole US of A in a few weeks time, and I don’t really have to much concern for my safety. (I’ll have a bit of situational awareness going on, but that’s it).

As for crime getting worse, welcome to our 24 x 7 internet news feed, further perpetuated by sites such as the riot act. (Don’t get me wrong, I love the riot act and all it stands for).

It however means that no matter how small an incident is, and no matter where in the world it happens, we can now hear, read and watch it happening live, because no longer is our news feed to us in 30 second stories in the space of 23 minutes (allows 7 minutes for ads). Also given the riot act (and many other media outlets) take stories from the general public, for a story to be published on-line it doesn’t take a jouro’s interest to get the story heard.

We can now read about things happening on the other side of our fair city, or the other side of the world, whilst the event is happening.

Why would the media want us all to be petrified in our homes?

So they can keep us glued to the screen/newspaper/website, on which advertising is sold.

Over the past 20 or so years, the mainstream media really have gone from reporting the news to fearmongering.

sepi said :

Why would the media want us all to be petrified in our homes?

Because it sells papers, makes more people watch the news or a current affair, today tonight etc.

Funny how during periods when no visible and anxiety-provoking crime has occurred nobody speculates that crime rates are falling or that things are getting better.

A wanker is a wanker, regardless of his skin pigmentation.

I think white guys are well ahead in the pedo race, woody.

White criminals are just as vulgar and violent as any other.

The question you need to be asking is: Who is committing these violent crimes?

Is the answer ‘men’?

Oh, how silly of me. You want to play the race and culture card. (Not sure how, with the only meaningful data available being imprisonment by birth country, and with only 1 in 10 crimes actually solved, and then with only a third of assaults reported but hey, bluff away – I’ve got only got three of a kind.)

In that case, I’ve got a much more interesting question for you:

If white culture is so superior, and if our civilization is so awesome, why do white people commit any crimes at all?

Ralph said :

The question you need to be asking is: Who is committing these violent crimes? That you will find most illuminating. Same goes for the United States, but even more illuminating. And before DMD and Woody start screeching, I know, it be caused by white man oppression, and modernity.

Similar situation here, although it’s a less worse, because we don’t arm our poor.

Indeed, and chains caused slavery.

Slavery would have been harder without chains.

People are less dangerous without guns. Still dangerous, but it’s not going to be such an easy and quick job to kill someone without a tool design exactly and only to do that.

Why would the media want us all to be petrified in our homes?

I think the main problem is that it’s happening all at the same time. In the last 2 or 3 weeks there’s been something like 3 murders, 3 attempted abductions of girls and whatever else has happened. Canberra’s only a small place, so when these violent crimes gets concentrated into a small space of time, then people react.

The question you need to be asking is: Who is committing these violent crimes? That you will find most illuminating. Same goes for the United States, but even more illuminating. And before DMD and Woody start screeching, I know, it be caused by white man oppression, and modernity.

Similar situation here, although it’s a less worse, because we don’t arm our poor.

Indeed, and chains caused slavery.

MrPC: I’m sure you’re probably trolling, but having spent a bit of time in the US, for all it’s shortcomings I can’t say I was ever living in fear (never mind “all day every day”).

As for Canberra, after one particularly galling “Canberra is going to hell, it’s not safe to walk the streets any more” style post, I tracked down the actual crime stats for this city (I know, it’s far more fun to make with the uninformed speculation and wild claims about how the streets are crawling with thugs and rapists, but I kinda like actual numbers). What they boil down to is this: violent crimes per capita are indeed up a little bit over the last few years. They’re still so low, however, that, as MrPC says, you’re really pretty unlikely from a statistical standpoint to ever be affected. My advice would be to worry about things that are demonstrably a problem rather than listen to the media who would like nothing better than to get everyone believing it’s not safe to step out their front door.

That’s only some parts of the USA, MrPC, and even then, it’s overblown by the media. Most of it is poor on poor violence. Similar situation here, although it’s a less worse, because we don’t arm our poor.

Port Moresby is where you should be scared.

And then again, wasn’t Alice Springs named the ‘stabbing capital of the world’ or something?

Regardless of whether it’s better or worse, the overall rate is so low that it’s likely it will never affect you in any meaningful way. Go visit some really scummy countries like the USA and you might experience what it’s truly like to live in fear all day every day.