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How Covid-19 turned out to be bad for criminals, unless you were Victorian

Crime levels have plunged in Australia to the lowest level in 12 years, but a new category of offenders has emerged since the Covid-19 outbreak, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Feb 10, 2022, updated Feb 10, 2022

Data from the ABS has revealed the offender rate fell to the lowest level since data was collected in 2008-09.

But it points out that Covid had a particularly heavy impact on crime because most Australians were stuck at home for at least some of the time, ensuring the burglary business model was in shreds.

However, that didn’t hold true in Victoria where the lockdowns in Melbourne were the longest in the world. Its crime rate rose by 12 per cent because “miscellaneous” offences more than tripled as a result of fines for Covid-19 offences.

While youth crime is a favoured political topic, the number of offenders in that category has fallen dramatically in the past decade, along with all crime, and in 2020-21 it was at the lowest level since 2008-09.

The number of youth offenders with a principal offence of robbery or extortion was down 20 per cent. Theft was down 22 per cent.

The ABS revealed that there were about 30,000 people who had at least one Covid-related offence in 2020-2021. To narrow that down, they were more likely to be Victorian males, aged between 20 and 29.

About 80 per cent of Covid offences were in Victoria.

“The number of (all) proceedings decreased in all published states and territories, except Victoria, which increased by 12 per cent,” the ABS said.

Nationally, there were still 360,000 offenders who had action taken against them by police, but this was down 4 per cent. Illicit drug offences fell by 16 per cent and it was the fifth consecutive year that this category fell.

In Queensland, illicit drug offences were the most common offence and accounted for 24 per cent of the total. Acts intended to cause injury accounted for the most number of court cases in NSW, the ACT, Victoria and Tasmania, but in Queensland it was illicit drugs.

In the non-court actions in Queensland, public order offences accounted for 34 per cent.

 

 

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