Juvenile repeat offenders are a major contributor to Victoria’s escalating car-related crime over the past year, both theft from cars – and the vehicles themselves.
Motor vehicle theft in Victoria has surged by more than 40 per cent in the past 12 months, as part of a general increase in crimes related to items stolen from cars.
In the 12 months up to June this year, there were 638,640 offences recorded in Victoria, according to the Crime Statistics Agency – 119,369 of which were related to motor vehicles, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of the total.
Theft from a motor vehicle remains the most common and fastest-growing crime in Victoria, at 86,351 offences recorded – including attempted theft – up 39.4 per cent in the last year.
Number plates were the top item stolen from motor vehicles, making up almost 40 per cent of the category, and increasing 50 per cent from the year prior (32,481 offences).
But theft – or the attempted theft – of motor vehicles themselves is also at its highest volume since 2002, at 33,018 recorded offences, up 50.7 per cent year-on-year.
When attempted theft is removed from the total, the number of recorded offences drops to 28,482 – up 48.3 per cent year-on-year.
Child crime was found to be a significant contributor to the growth, making up more than a quarter of car theft (26.4 per cent), even though children only make up 12.8 per cent of processed offenders across the state.
Victoria Police arrested 1128 child offenders (aged 10-17 years old) across a total of 7118 occasions. While there were 149 fewer juvenile offenders than the previous year, repeat offenders were over-represented in the data.
Police have attributed the increase in car theft to a rise in emerging technologies, helping to circumvent existing in-car security systems.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations, Bob Hill, said in a statement: “As a society, we simply cannot allow the level of crime we are seeing to become normalised and accepted – every Victorian deserves to feel safe in their home, within the community and on the roads.”
"Victoria Police is tackling these issues head on. Our members are doing exceptional work to resolve these crimes. But it must be said – the number of arrests we are seeing reflects an unacceptable level of offending.
"We will continue to make arrests and hold offenders to account, but we need to prevent and deter crime to reduce offending so that there are fewer victims in Victoria.”
Ilana is a Melbourne-based journalist who was previously a copywriter in the Big Apple. Having moved to Melbourne for her Master of Journalism, she has written articles about food, farm machinery, fashion, and now the fast and furious. Her dream car has been a Mini Cooper since the fifth grade, eyeing its style and petite size.
