Family violence down but crime up

FAMILY violence has seen a welcomed decrease in Bass Coast and South Gippsland according to the latest Crime Statistics Agency data.

The statistics, released for the year ending December 2022, showed family violence incidents decreased by 8.7% in Bass Coast and 2.6% in South Gippsland.

Females continued to be the most affected family member, with 599 in Bass Coast and 395 in South Gippsland.

The most affected age group was between 25-54 and over.

In Bass Coast, criminal incidents decreased by 3.8% from 2142 to 2060.

Of the criminal incidents, 39% resulted in charges laid, 24.8% no charges and 36.3% unsolved.

The top suburbs for incidents were Wonthaggi, Cowes and Inverloch with the top offence subgroups including criminal damage, breach family violence order and other theft.

The criminal incident rate per 100,000 population was 4912.7, compared to the state-wide rate of 5306.6.

The number of ‘offences recorded’ also decreased by 10.1% in Bass Coast.

While in South Gippsland, criminal incidents were up 12.3% from 1184 to 1330.

Of the incidents, 43.8% saw charges laid, 20.3% no charges and 35.9% unsolved.

The top suburbs for incidents were Leongatha, Korumburra and Mirboo North.

Total ‘offences recorded’ were also up by 14.3%.

State-wide there were 483,441 criminal offences recorded in 2022, representing an increase of 5,652 offences or 1.2% from 2021.

Victoria Police noted that pleasingly, overall crime in 2022 still remained well below pre-pandemic levels – there were 52,418 less criminal offences committed last year than in 2019 (9.8% decrease).

Last year, there were 202,452 individual victims of crime – an increase of 1.1%, however still the second lowest victimisation rate in the past decade.

Overall crimes against the person increased by 1.4% from 2021.