By Mikayla van Loon, with AAP
Theft, criminal damage and youth offending have continued to rise in the Yarra Ranges, a trend reflected across the state according to the newest Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) data.
The total number of criminal incidents recorded in the Yarra Ranges in the year to 30 September rose 11.9 per cent, with stealing from a motor vehicle, criminal damage, other thefts and stealing from a retail store all increasing from the previous year.
Theft and deception offences saw the largest increases in Victoria too, with theft from motor vehicle offences increasing by 13,924 to 68,042.
Number plate and power tool theft recorded the greatest year-on-year increase, followed by theft from shops, theft in general and vehicle theft.
Meat, fresh produce, cosmetics and vitamins were among the most common items stolen from grocery stores.
“Inflation, cost-of-living pressures and high interest rates (are) driving record levels of alcohol and grocery theft,” Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations Neil Paterson said.
While breaching a family violence order still ranked in the top five offences for the municipality, this decreased across the year.
Crime in Lilydale saw a sharp upward trend, with 1090 incidents recorded compared to 857 in 2023.
Mooroolbark, Chirnside Park and Kilsyth also saw rises in criminal incidents, while Healesville had a slight decrease from 341 to 316 up until September 2024.
The top five locations across the Yarra Ranges where criminal incidents and offences occurred overwhelmingly happened in houses, followed by the street, driveways, service stations and retail stores.
In Victoria, there were a total of 28,432 home burglaries.
Across the state, criminal incidents increased to 431,683, an increase of 15 per cent on the year before and the highest since the CSA started recording in 2004/05.
Those aged 10 to 24 were behind 50,516 incidents, an increase of 13.5 per cent and crimes by children aged 10 to 17 reached their highest levels since 2009.
The 10 to 17 age group also became the second largest offending cohort in the Yarra Ranges seeing 583 alleged offenders fit into this category. The over 45 age group, however, still remains the highest offending group.
“Our intelligence reveals that around 40 per cent of all car thieves are children or youth,” Mr Patterson said.
For the first time in Victoria, over 100,000 family violence incidents were recorded in what was an already tragic year with 30 women killed, including 12 in regional Victoria,
CSA Chief Statistician Fiona Dowsley said family incidents have reached their highest levels ever in Victoria.
“There have been increases in incidents involving serious assaults, particularly aggravated assaults against females and threats of serious injury,” she said.
“Aggravated assaults on females frequently coincided with breaches of family violence orders, criminal damage, and common assault, contributing to the overall increase in family incident-related offences.”
The aggravated assault of a female increased by 92.2 per cent year-on-year and family violence accounts for one fifth of all crime in Victoria, with 102,082 incidents.
Mr Paterson said these rates of violence were an “unwanted milestone”.
“That means police are out there responding to family violence incidents at a rate of 280 a day, or 12 incidents every hour, or one incident every five minutes across this state,” Mr Paterson told reporters on 19 December.
