The Covid-19 Outbreak

  • The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the COVID-19 a pandemic on the 11th March 2020.
  • However, Victoria confirmed its first case on 25th January 2020 and declared a state of emergency on 16th March. In response to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) report, Victoria implemented various level of people’s movements restriction in hope to curb the spread of the virus (“Explanatory notes | Crime Statistics Agency Victoria”, 2021).
  • The Victorian Government also introduced new COVID-19 related offences codes relating to the breaches of the Chief Health Officer(CHO) Directions in the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (“Explanatory notes | Crime Statistics Agency Victoria”, 2021)
  • So, did Covid-19 affect the dynamic of criminal offences in Victoria?

Overview of Crime Trend from 2016 to 2020

A recorded offence include any criminal act or omission by a person, an organization for which a penalty could be imposed by the Victorian legal system (“Recorded Offences | Crime Statistics Agency Victoria”, 2021).


  • The total number of offenses has been increasing over the past 4 years in Victoria after an 8.6% dipped in crime rates from 2016 in 2017.
  • Victoria has a total offense count of 548,354 in the year of 2020. This is 2.3% increase over the previous year.
  • Each category of offense will be investigated further to determine Covid-19’s impact on the demographics of the offences.

Drilling into the Offence Divisions…

Within each year, the offenses are categorized into Divisions. These divisions are as seen on the visualisation.

Further investigation is required to determine the reason for the change.

Zooming into “Other Offences”…











Within “Miscellaneous Offences”…


Excluding Covid-19 Offenses…

Family Incident Flags

  • Offences with the family incident flags are offences that are classified as Family Violence offences.
  • Family Violence include any kind of behavior that controls, dominates a family member that causes them to feel fear for their own or for other family member’s safety and well-being. It can include physical, sexual, psychological, emotional or economic abuse (“Explanatory notes & definitions | Crime Statistics Agency Victoria”, 2021).

Subdivision Offence Trend By Month in 2020

In a nutshell…

  • Victoria sees a significant year on year increase in offences over the past 4 years.
  • The ”Property and Deception Offences” sees a 12.1% decrease in its number of recorded offence over the previous year. However, Victoria has its total offence count increase by 2.3% to 548,354,in the year of 2020.
  • The 37,505 Covid-19 related breach was the caused of the increase in the total offence count in 2020. Excluding the Covid-19 classified offences, 2020 recorded a 4.7% decrease of total offences over 2019.
    • Despite the decrease in total offences, 2020 also sees a 10.6% increment of Family Violence Related Offences from 2019.
    • All offence divisions sees an increase in Family Violence Related Offences with the “Drug Offence” division receiving the highest increment of 47.59%.
  • With various severity of restrictions implemented throughout 2020:
    • The Covid related Offence sees an increase in committed offences during the restriction period and a decrease when the restriction eases.
    • On the other hand, all other subdivision offences sees a decrease in committed offences during the restriction period and an increase when restriction eases. The subdivision, “Theft” sees the most drastic change in the number of committed crimes between the restrictions.

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