The appalling crimes for which rates are too high in NSW

People in NSW are less likely to be murdered, robbed or assaulted than most other parts of Australia, new data suggests, but sexual assault and domestic violence have remained stubbornly high.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research on Wednesday used data from police alongside reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to see how each state and territory stacked up on major crime types.

The analysis shows NSW crime rates are lower than most other jurisdictions despite crime regularly dominating headlines, BOCSAR executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said.

“The narrative in NSW is that crime is a real concern,” Fitzgerald said.

“[High-profile crimes] give people a distorted perception about the reality of crime rates and the risk of crime.

“We really need to take an elevated view.”

Murders, assaults, burglaries and robberies in NSW were at the lowest, or among the lowest, rates in the nation.

But sexual assault and domestic violence rates remained at about the national average, the data suggests.

“We’re not statistically different to the rest of Australia, but there is some indication that we’re higher … there are two of these data sources that do suggest we’re on the higher end,” Fitzgerald said.

Sexual violence is notoriously under-reported, criminologists and police say, because of social stigma, an adversarial legal system, and a lack of awareness about what constitutes an offence.

Sexual assault reports surged in NSW when police overhauled the sexual assault reporting option in January 2023, allowing people to more easily make anonymous disclosures without initiating a criminal investigation.

The aim is to create a record of an offence, as well as helping police gather information to identify repeat offenders or vulnerable communities.

Despite a spate of tit-for-tat killings in Sydney’s underworld amid ongoing battles for control of its lucrative drug market, NSW recorded the lowest murder rate in the country between 2021 and 2023, nine per cent below the national average.

There were 0.7 murders per 100,000 NSW residents over the three years, tied with the other most populous state, Victoria.

The sparsely populated Northern Territory recorded a murder rate of 1.9, almost double the next-highest rates in Western Australia and Tasmania.

“The narrative in NSW is that crime is a real concern.”

Jackie Fitzgerald, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

The NT also led the nation in the rate of physical assaults recorded by police, with 4569.8 victims per 100,000 residents.

NSW came in at 917.4 per 100,000 in 2023, with only the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania having lower rates.

The police-recorded statistics could not be compared to Victoria as data in the state does not meet national standards.

On self-reported data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2022/23 and 2023/24, 1.7 per cent of Victorians reported being victim of an assault, compared to 1.3 per cent of NSW residents.

Domestic and family violence remains a national scourge with similar rates nationwide, though BOCSAR notes the estimated rates from an ABS survey have “limited precision”.

Queensland had the highest victimisation rate at 0.95 per cent of residents, Victoria the lowest at 0.6, and NSW on 0.72, similar to the national average.

But women report violence from an intimate partner or family member at much higher rates: 3.8 per cent of women in NSW, slightly above the national average of 3.5 per cent.

Senior police say the statistics with domestic violence, as with sexual assault, don’t necessarily indicate an increase in violence but reflect an “increase in reporting and community awareness, with more victims coming forward”.

“Victims are also now better supported by police due to the significant investment in education and training for frontline police officers to better identify and record domestic violence incidents,” said Superintendent Danielle Emerton, commander, domestic and family violence command.

“The introduction of new laws to capture coercive control and non-physical abuse could also be contributing to more people coming forward.”

Police have increased numbers of specialist DV reporting locations in a bid to boost confidence in those reporting offences.

Broadened definitions used by the ABS and other statistics bodies now include intimate and non-intimate relationships, further complicating data.

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