Link to report summary:
The latest NSW Crime trends show that two of the 13 major offences significantly increased in the two years to December 2022. The remaining 11 major offences were stable.
The two offences trending upwards were:
- Motor vehicle theft (up 17.0%)
- Steal from retail (up 23.7%)
The recent increase in vehicle and retail theft follow large declines in these offences during 2020 and 2021 coinciding with the pandemic. Crime volumes for both offences are now starting to return to pre-pandemic levels.
As has been previously reported, the rate of offending for many crimes was interrupted by the pandemic. Over the five years to December 2022, recorded incidents of two of the 13 major offences categories showed a significant upward trend, nine showed a downward trend and two were stable. The two offences trending upwards over the past five years were:
- Domestic violence-related assault (up 3.0% per year on average)
- Sexual assault (up 7.0% per year on average).
The nine offences trending downwards over the past five years were:
- Murder (down 5.6% per year on average)
- Robbery (down 7.5% per year on average)
- Break and enter-dwelling (down 8.4% per year on average)
- Break and enter-non-dwelling (down 7.8% per year on average)
- Motor vehicle theft (down 1.6% per year on average)
- Steal from motor vehicle (down 8.1% per year on average)
- Steal from retail store (down 2.7% per year on average)
- Other stealing offences (down 8.7% per year on average)
- Malicious damage to property (down 4.7% per year on average)
