The Queensland Government Statisticians Office has released the 2019-20 Crime Report Queensland, showing that the number of unique offenders and unique youth offenders reached its lowest level in a decade.
According to the Report, the Queensland unique offender rate is continuing its downward trend from a peak of 2,999 offenders per 100,000 persons in 2014-15 to 2,408 offenders in 2019-20.
The number of unique offenders in 2019-20 was down 4.5 per cent on the previous year.
Minister for Police, Mark Ryan welcomed the trend but pointed out that the total number of offences rose by two per cent in 2019-20, compared to the previous year.
“This indicates that fewer offenders are committing more crime,” Mr Ryan said.
Stressing that community safety would always be a priority, he said this had been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic with the vital role police had played at borders, airports and in quarantine hotels.
“In relation to crime statistics, they provide police with a valuable tool to identify trends and issues that can inform the strategies and resource allocations that police employ,” Mr Ryan said.
“The starting point is always that any amount of crime is unacceptable,” he said.
“Even if the number of offenders is declining, there are still people who are victims of crime.”
The Minister said that by using the information in the report, police would be better equipped to respond in the best possible way to community needs.
“While this report shows that fewer Queenslanders are committing offences in the first place, the fact is, crime is still happening, and for those who are the victims the impact can be traumatic,” Mr Ryan said.
Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski (pictured) said that while there had been a two per cent increase in overall reported offences, the number of young offenders and unique offenders was trending down.
“The proportion of offenders aged under 25 years was the lowest in 10 years, down from 49.3 per cent of all offenders proceeded against by police in 2010-11 to 37.5 per cent in 2019-20,” Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said.
The 187-page Crime Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
