New crime statistics show the Northern Territory leads Australia in murder rate and assaults
The Northern Territory is the murder capital of Australia, according to new crime statistics.
The state and territory breakdown of Recorded Crime - Victims from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the Northern Territory has the highest rate of murder at 7.7 per 100,000 people. This is over three times greater than the next highest state.
The Northern Territory also leads the country in the rate of assaults per person, again over three times higher than the next highest state. Figures for Victoria, Tasmania, and the ACT are not available due to the way data is reported from these states and territories.
For Australia as a whole the rate of murder victims per 100,00 has increased slightly by 0.1 year on year, sexual assault by 2.2, armed robbery by 0.3, and blackmail/extortion by 0.2.
Attempted murder is down by 0.1, kidnapping/abduction by 0.2, and unarmed robbery by 3.4. Longer term trends are harder to determine as the Bureau of Statistics advises that data prior to 2010 was collected using different classifications, so is not strictly comparable.
However here's what the trend looked like up until 2009:
Crimes such as murder and assault are still more likely to occur in a home than anywhere else, with the vast majority occurring at a residential property.
In the Northern Territory, Indigenous people continue to be overrepresented in assault statistics. There were 130 Indigenous victims of sexual assault in 2012 in comparison to 153 non-Indigenous victims. This is despite only 30% of the Northern Territory population being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.
The Northern Territory police and the department of the Attorney-General and Justice both declined to comment on the statistics.