2022 Crime Statistics show property crime still much lower than pre-pandemic
Release Date: Thursday, 16 June 2022
New crime statistics released today from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) show that many high-volume crimes remained low in the first quarter of 2022 on the back of large reductions in offending during the pandemic. Between January and March 2022 police recorded 24% fewer property offences than the same period two years ago (January to March 2020).
This reduction is largely driven by significant falls in break and enter – dwelling (down 27% Q1 2022 compared with Q1 2020), break and enter – non-dwelling (down 23%), steal from retail store (down 24%) and steal from motor vehicle (down 21%). Robbery is down a sizeable 32%.
Violent crime, by contrast, is generally now on-par with pre-pandemic levels. Between January and March 2022 the volume of domestic assault and sexual offences were equivalent to the same period two years ago (January to March 2020).
Jackie Fitzgerald, Executive Director at BOCSAR, said it was surprising that stealing offences were still so low in 2022 given behaviour patterns in the community had largely returned to normal. “A number of factors suspected to be keeping property crime low during the pandemic are no longer in play, such as mobility restrictions and access to government stimulus money. It seems likely that property crime will start to increase over the coming year but, fortunately, this is taking longer than expected.”
Violent offences involving Knives and Firearms
Despite some recent high profile violent offences being reported in the media, recorded crime statistics show no increase in violent offences involving firearms or knives in the year to March 2022. The number of murders, attempted murders, assaults and robberies involving knives or firearms were lower in the year to March 2022 than in almost any other year in the past two decades.
