In the 24 months to March 2014, domestic violence, indecent assault and fraud increased in New South Wales, while other types of major offences decreased or remained stable.

Summary

In the 24 months to March 2014, only three of the 17 major offences showed significant upward trends. These were:

1. assault – domestic violence related (up 2.5%);
2. indecent assault, act of indecency and other sexual offences (up 12.1%); and
3. fraud (up 8.6%).

Seven of the major offences showed significant downward trends:

1. robbery without a weapon (down 15.7%);
2. break and enter dwelling (down 13.3%);
3. break and enter non-dwelling (down 10.9%);
4. motor vehicle theft (down 10.3%);
5. steal from motor vehicle (down 3.7%);
6. steal from person (down 12.9%); and
7. malicious damage to property (down 7.7%).

The remaining seven offences were stable.

The increase in domestic violence-related assault may be partly due to an increased willingness to report this offence but as the rise is present for domestic assaults resulting in grievous bodily harm, the growth in recorded domestic assaults is also likely to reflect a real increase in domestic assault. The domestic assault rate should trend back down as we enter the winter months when assault rates are typically lower.