Victoria’s crime rate is spiralling, reaching its highest level in almost a decade, driven by a cohort of repeat child offenders amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Figures released yesterday by the state’s Crime Statistics Agency placed further pressure on the state government, before legislation for its bail reform crackdown passed in a late-night parliament sitting.
It is now almost a certainty the Allan government will head into next year’s state election with law and order as a major issue.
Here’s a breakdown of what the latest crime figures show.
Victoria’s crime rate
Accounting for Victoria’s population growth, the state’s overall crime rate grew by 13.2% in 2024 compared with 2023.
Last year, there were 8,691.6 offences in the state for every 100,000 people. This is the highest offence rate since 2016.
Police arrested 26,519 people 73,539 times in 2024, the most since electronic records began in 1993. This equates to 201 arrests per day.
Repeat youth offenders
Amid a focus on Victoria’s youth crime offending, the total number of child offenders (aged between 10 and 17) fell by 3% last year. But the total number of repeat offenders increased by 4.9%.
This means while fewer children are committing crime, those offending are doing so more frequently.
Repeat child offending is a key reason for the increase in crime.
The state’s police minister, Anthony Carbines, said that despite the increase in overall crime the unique offender rate had remained “flat” – meaning repeat offenders were responsible for the bulk of offending.
“What it’s showing is we’ve got repeat offenders out there that are driving the crime rate,” he said. “We need to pull that up. We need to hold those offenders accountable and the way that we do that is by passing our tough bail laws.”
Carbines said about 330 young people were responsible for most youth offending, with even fewer committing hundreds of offences.
The ‘scourge’ of family violence
Last year, there were 61,522 breaches of family violence intervention orders in Victoria – an equivalent 882.9 offences per 100,000 people, up from 786 the previous year.
Victoria police’s deputy commissioner for regional operations, Bob Hill, described a “scourge of family violence” happening behind closed doors that sees police respond to an incident every five minutes.
Victims of crime
Accounting for population growth, the state’s victimisation rate grew by 16.8% to 3,817 reports per 100,000 people.
The number of person-related victim reports increased by 19.4% to 265,972 while organisation reports were up 29.3% to 109,311. The Crime Statistics Agency said the rise in person victim reports was primarily driven by theft (up 29% in the past year).
Fastest growing crime: theft from motor vehicle
Theft from motor vehicles is the state’s most common and fastest-growing crime, with more than a third of these offences relating to number plate theft.
In 2024, there were 75,731 offences where an item was stolen from a vehicle. This equated to 1,086.8 offences per 100,000 people – up from 833.4 the previous year.
Retail store theft amid cost-of-living pressures
Victoria recorded 38,750 retail store theft offences last year. This was equivalent to 556.1 offences per 100,000 people – up from 414.3 offences the previous year.
Hill said cost of living was one driver of the increased crime rate.
“We are certainly experiencing a downturn in our economy, and that is playing out [in] acquisition crimes that are occurring here in Victoria,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Victoria police said sustained cost-of-living pressures meant more people resorted to stealing items such as groceries and clothing. Alcohol is the most stolen item from stores, accounting for about a third of all retail theft offences.
“Police intelligence shows shop steal syndicates are targeting alcohol for the purchase of on selling,” police said in a statement.
The Crime Statistics Agency chief statistician, Fiona Dowsley, said increasing theft offences can be “opportunistic in nature and may be linked to cost-of-living pressures”.
She said shoplifting was linked to adult offenders often in their 30s.
