Australia recorded the lowest number of criminal offenders in more than 16 years last year, but domestic violence offenders still increased.
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found the number of “offenders proceeded against by police” in 2023-24 fell to its lowest level since the time series began in 2008-09.
ABS Head of Crime and Justice Statistics Samantha Hall said there were 340,681 offenders in Australia in 2023-24, a fall of 2 percent from the previous year.
“Accounting for population growth, 2023-24 marked the lowest offender rate since we started collecting this data in 2008-09,” Ms Hall said.
“The rate is now down to 1430 offenders per 100,000 people.”
She said this was largely due to a fall in illicit drug and public order offences, with both categories reaching record lows for the time series.
“Illicit drug offending has generally been falling over the last eight years with the offender rate at 202 offenders per 100,000 people in 2023-24, versus 399 offenders per 100,000 people in 2015-16.”
Ms Hall said the largest falls in illicit drug offenders since the previous year were in New South Wales (-2,287 offenders) and Queensland (-1,666 offenders), while the largest public order offender falls were in New South Wales (-1,686 offenders), Victoria (-1,442 offenders) and Queensland (-1,157 offenders).
“Despite the overall fall in offenders, family and domestic violence related offenders rose to 90,697 offenders in 2023-24, up 3 percent since 2022-23.
“This was driven by a rise in assault, which went up by 4 percent from 2022-23.”
