Recorded crime patterns can vary across time, locations and offence categories. Examining these differences can help readers understand how reported crime has changed across Victoria.
Research question: How have recorded offences changed across Victoria from 2017 to 2026, and how do crime patterns differ between Local Government Areas when population size is considered?
This interactive report examines financial years ending June 2017–2026 using data from the Crime Statistics Agency Victoria.
Data source: Crime Statistics Agency Victoria, LGA Recorded Offences – Year Ending June 2026.
The analysis uses recorded offence counts, offence classifications, Local Government Areas and population-adjusted rates.
Recorded offences are not equivalent to individual victimisation risk. Population-adjusted rates can also be influenced by commuters, visitors and reporting practices.
Recorded offences in Victoria have fluctuated over the past decade. Explore the interactive chart below to see how the number of recorded offences changed between financial years ending June 2017 and June 2026.
What does the graph reveal?
Recorded offences increased overall between 2017 and 2026, although the trend was not consistent. Offence counts declined around 2022, increased strongly through 2025, and decreased slightly in 2026.
These figures describe police-recorded offences within the LGAs covered by Table 02, not the statewide total including additional geographic categories.
This chart compares recorded offences across major offence divisions in Victoria for the year ending June 2026.
What does this chart reveal?
Property and deception offences accounted for the largest number of recorded offences in 2026, with 357,246 offences.
Justice procedures offences were the second-largest category (100,463), followed by crimes against the person (95,322).
Drug offences, public order and security offences, and other offences accounted for substantially fewer recorded offences.
Key finding: Property and deception offences represented the largest share of recorded offences across the 79 Victorian LGAs in 2026.
Limitation: These figures show the number of recorded offences, not the number of individual victims or the severity of offences.
This chart compares recorded offence counts in 2017 and 2026 to identify which Local Government Areas experienced the largest absolute increases.
What does Chart 3 reveal?
Wyndham experienced the largest absolute increase in recorded offences between 2017 and 2026, rising by 9,218 offences.
Casey recorded the second-largest increase (8,104), followed by Melbourne (7,660) and Melton (5,979).
Several other LGAs, including Maribyrnong, Greater Geelong and Ballarat, also experienced increases.
Key finding: The growth in recorded offences was not evenly distributed across Victoria. Some LGAs experienced substantially larger absolute increases than others.
Limitation: These figures measure changes in offence counts rather than population-adjusted crime rates. Population growth may explain part of the increase, but this analysis does not establish its causes.
Recorded offence counts and offence rates per 100,000 population can produce different rankings. This chart compares both measures for the ten LGAs with the highest recorded offence counts in 2026.
What does Chart 4 reveal?
Melbourne ranks first for both total recorded offences and population-adjusted offence rates.
Casey ranks second for total recorded offences but 44th when population is considered. Greater Geelong ranks third by total offences but 32nd by population-adjusted rate.
Key finding: LGAs with high recorded offence counts do not necessarily have the highest offence rates per 100,000 population.
Limitation: Population-adjusted rates do not fully account for visitors, commuters or differences in reporting practices.
Comparing recorded offences per 100,000 population helps identify LGAs with relatively high offence rates, rather than simply those with the largest total offence counts.
What does Chart 5 reveal?
Melbourne recorded the highest offence rate among Victorian LGAs in 2026, at approximately 22,860 recorded offences per 100,000 population.
Latrobe ranked second, followed by Yarra. Other LGAs with relatively high recorded offence rates included Mildura, Greater Shepparton and Northern Grampians.
Key finding: Areas with relatively smaller resident populations can have high recorded offence rates even when their total recorded offence counts are lower than those of larger LGAs.
Limitation: These rates are based on resident population estimates and do not directly measure an individual’s likelihood of experiencing crime. Visitors, commuters and reporting practices may influence the results.
We identified the following three interesting facts:
The number of offences was changing over time. The number of offences in Victoria was changing over the period from 2017 to 2026, falling to its lowest in 2022 and subsequently rising substantially until 2025.
Offences were changing in different offence categories. The offences in property and deception offence categories made up the largest share of offences recorded in 2026.
There was a geographical variation in crime. Wyndham saw the largest increase in offence numbers in 2017–2026, and the largest offence rate in per-capita terms in Melbourne in 2026.
Recorded crime patterns can differ depending on time periods, types of offences and geography. Analysis of absolute offence numbers along with per capita rates helps to gain a better understanding of the differences across LGA in Victoria.
Primary data source
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria. (2026). Data tables: LGA recorded offences, year ending June 2026 [Data set]. Victorian Government.
https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/
Data processing and visualisation
All calculations and visualisations were produced using R.
Interpretation note
The report analyses police-recorded offences and does not measure individual victimisation risk or establish causal explanations for changes in recorded crime.