Home Burglaries and Car Thefts on the Rise, ABS Statistics Reveal

One in five households that were burgled last year were targeted multiple times, as property crimes overall saw an increase.

A suspected burglar pictured by West Midlands police on Nov 2nd 2017 in Handsworth Birmingham, UK. West Midlands Police

More Australians have fallen victim to home burglaries and car thefts in the past year, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The number of homes broken into jumped by 32,000, reaching a total of 218,000. This increase has many feeling unsafe in their own neighbourhoods, with three in four victims reporting the crime to police. Alarmingly, one in five households was targeted multiple times.

Beyond break-ins, nearly one million households (952,000) experienced some form of property crime.

This includes 226,300 attempted break-ins, 381,200 cases of malicious property damage, and 199,300 instances of other thefts.

Car Theft Sees Biggest Jump in Years

The trend does not stop at homes. Car thefts also spiked, with over 72,000 cars stolen in the past year, marking an increase of 17,000 thefts compared to the previous year.

Many of these were taken from residential areas, leaving people stranded and worried about the safety of their property.

A third were stolen from the street, while 2 percent were the victim of theft from a vehicle.

Despite these numbers, other household crimes—such as attempted break-ins, theft from vehicles, and malicious property damage—remained stable compared to the previous year. The rates of personal crimes like physical and threatened assault, sexual assault, and robbery, also did not increase.

Thousands of Victims Affected by Violent Crimes

While overall crime rates appear stable, behind that statistic is a concerning trend.

A total of 362,800 Australians experienced physical assault, and 446,100 were threatened face-to-face with assault.

In addition, 163,500 people were threatened with assault in other ways, and 50,700 fell victim to robbery.

Although men and women faced similar rates of physical assault, women were three times more likely to be assaulted by a family member or intimate partner (0.6 percent vs. 0.2 percent), while men were more often attacked by a stranger (1.1 percent vs. 0.5 percent).

Disability also proved to be a risk factor, with a victimisation rate of 2.5 percent—almost double that of people without a disability (1.3 percent.)

Sexual Assault on the Rise

While many crime rates have remained steady or declined, sexual assault is the only crime to have risen over the past decade—increasing from 0.3 to 0.6 percent of the population.

103,800 Australians aged 18 years and over experienced some form of sexual assault in the past year. Women aged 18 to 29 years were at the highest risk, while people with a disability experience victimisation rates more than three times higher than those without (1.6 percent vs. 0.5 percent).

Most states and territories saw either a decline or stable crime rates, with a few exceptions: Victoria experienced an increase in attempted break-ins, Tasmania had a rise in malicious property damage, and Northern Territory faced an increase in nearly every category of crime.