This was published 6 months ago
Key crime victim numbers fell across Queensland state election year
Updated ,first published
The news
Victim numbers in several key categories of crime featured in the LNP’s election campaign fell last year to the lowest point since 2021, while sexual assaults hit a record high, new data shows.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released crime victim data on Wednesday, which showed 289,449 people were the recorded victims of nine categories of offences across 2024.
While assault and sexual assault victim numbers, largely linked to domestic violence, saw annual increases of 5 and 11 per cent respectively, other crimes typically linked to youth offending fell.
These included victims of robbery, unlawful entry, and vehicle theft. All reported single-digit percentage declines. Unlawful entry and vehicle theft figures were their lowest since 2021.
Why it matters
The Crisafulli government’s campaign to the October election leaned heavily on claims of a “youth crime crisis” fostered by Labor’s decade in office, despite overall crime rates declining for years.
This culminated in then-opposition leader David Crisafulli vowing to step down as premier if he was elected and did not oversee a decline in crime victim numbers from the 2023 ABS figure of 289,657.
On the eve of the election, Crisafulli watered this down with the caveat that the measure would “of course” be the population-adjusted victim rate (not captured in the same way by the ABS data).
Recent analysis by this masthead showed some offending fell in 2024 after a years-long rise. The government released its own half-year 2025 victim dataset in July, showing a year-on-year fall.
What they said
The data shows sexual assault victims climbed a further 11 per cent to 9326, “the largest number in the 32-year time series”. The rate increased from 155 to 167 victims per 100,000 people.
Assault victims, reported in Queensland for only the third year, increased by 5 per cent to 61,644 – a rate change from 1071 to 1106 per 100,000. Victims of “other theft” rose slightly to a record 152,421.
Robbery victims, of both armed and unarmed offenders, fell 7 per cent to 3009 – the largest proportion of which were between 10- and 17-years old.
Unlawful entry victims fell 9 per cent to 45,273. Vehicle theft victims fell 4 per cent to 17,493. The robbery, unlawful entry and vehicle theft victim figures do not include population-adjusted rates.
Another perspective
Experts have previously urged caution when analysing or predicting crime data trends, as the results from public reporting and police action mean it is not an entirely neutral data source.
Since the election, the government has rolled out its controversial laws setting adult sentences for children found guilty of certain crimes, and started rolling out new early intervention programs.
Speaking to reporters on the Gold Coast, Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber said the fall in total victim numbers in the ABS data equated to 2.25 per cent when adjusted for population growth.
She acknowledged some victim categories had seen increases which showed “we still have a long way to go”, but said “we’re going in the right direction”.
“This data demonstrates that the number of victims of crime in Queensland has somewhat flattened, but ultimately, there are still too many victims of crime in Queensland,” Gerber said.
She dismissed questions about which political party deserved credit for the fall, and did not give a clear answer across questions about which dataset she and other relevant ministers would be accountable to.
Senior Labor opposition MP Shannon Fentiman said the figures showed crime was too high in the community and, “most troubling … in our homes”, and domestic and family violence needed to be “core business” for police.
What you need to know
Victims of family and domestic violence related assaults accounted for 59.9 per cent of all assault victims in Queensland last year.
Nationally, about two in five sexual assaults were family and domestic violence related.
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Matt Dennien is a reporter at Brisbane Times covering state politics and the public service. He has previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.