Australia’s Crime Rate Hits 16-Year Low
The data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that in 2024, the number of offenders brought before the courts by police reached its lowest point since records began in 2008.
Crime in Australia, as indicated by the number of offenders charged by police, is at its lowest level since data collection started in 2008. According to ABS’s head of crime and justice statistics, Samantha Hall, there were 340,681 offenders in Australia in 2023/24, marking a two percent decrease from the previous year.
With population growth taken into account, 2023/24 saw the lowest offender rate since data collection began, at 1,430 offenders per 100,000 people.
This decline was primarily due to reductions in illicit drug and public order offenses, both of which hit record lows compared to previous years.
The ABS reported that illicit drug offending has been decreasing over the past eight years, with the offender rate at 202 offenders per 100,000 people in 2023/24, down from 399 in 2015/16.
Furthermore, despite an overall decrease in offender numbers, charges related to family and domestic violence crimes increased to 90,697 offenders in 2023/24, up by 3 percent from the year before, driven by a 4 percent increase in assaults.
The most frequent crimes committed were acts intended to cause injury, illicit drug offenses, theft, and public order offenses.
In terms of gender breakdown, the male offender rate was approximately three times higher than that of females, with 2,161 male offenders per 100,000 males compared to 711 female offenders per 100,000 females.
Regarding youth offenders, around a quarter of them were charged over acts intended to cause injury, which was the most common principal offense for that age group.
The number of youth offenders with a principal offense of illicit drugs decreased by 17 percent, marking the ninth consecutive annual decrease in this type of crime. The youth offender rate for illicit drugs also decreased, reaching the lowest recorded rate since data collection began in 2008/09.
