Crime Rate Slashed

On my desk this morning..............
THE number of people being murdered in Australia has fallen to its lowest level since national crime statistics were first recorded more than a decade ago.But with assaults not falling in kind, Don Weatherburn, director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, said yesterday that it appeared "serious attacks are not lethal as often any more".
A total of 256 murders were committed across the nation last year, a 15 per cent decline in 12 months and fewer than in any year since 1993, new crime figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed.
More sophisticated emergency medical procedures and a fall in the use of guns in serious attacks were among the theories that could explain the apparent contradiction in the figures, Dr Weatherburn said.
Assault and serious assault offences were not included in the ABS figures because some states were not recording all assaults.
"It's a national concern that two states, Victoria and Queensland, are not recording domestic assaults," he said.
"In 2003 we saw that the assault rate in NSW was three times higher than in Victoria.
"Now we know the reason is the Victorian and Queensland police are systematically under-recording domestic assault."
Australia's strong economy and the resulting drop in long-term unemployment has delivered an added bonus of a fall in property theft last year.
Like homicide rates, recorded victims of car theft and unlawful entry fell to their lowest level since national reporting began in 1993.
"For young people, whether they have a job is a big determinant of how much time they can spend dealing on the side or stealing on the side," Dr Weatherburn said.
The ABS figures revealed unlawful entry with intent dropped by 14 per cent over the year and car theft by 12per cent.
Dr Weatherburn said the fall in property crime was unsurprising as it stemmed from the heroin drought in early 2001 when heroin prices jumped 400 per cent.
This prompted an immediate drop in the number of fatal heroin overdoses and, evidence suggests, a similar decline in the consumption of the drug.
"Drug dependency dropped and, with it, property crime fell," he said.

I am so glad these figures have been released to the public. Much of my life is spent defending figures that the media blow right out of proportion. Or, they refuse to include so to skew what they report.
Australians think our crime rate is huge, but in reality, apart from assaults (99% of those are by family members, whist this is not good, at least the risk of being assaulted remains low) our crime rate is one of the lowest in the world. It's the car thefts and assaults that bring our figures up.

till next time, Michelle.