Crime Trends

This chapter points to the fact that crime ratesCrime rates, especially property crimeProperty crime rates, have been trending downwards in all modern Western democracies since the mid-1990s. It points to Australian data that show that we are consistent with the international ‘crime dropCrime drop’ trends. There are, however, some exceptions to the crime dropCrime drop, notably (and tragically) violence against womenViolence against women and children, and the modern scourge of cybercrimeCybercrime. The chapter rejects the view that a key reason for this reduction is the high imprisonment rate that has stretched government budgets in recent years. In contrast, a Productivity CommissionProductivity Commission report provides sage advice regarding how governments might reduce prison numbers by focusing on strategies to keep Australians, especially First Nations peoplesFirst Nations peoples, out of prison. Finally, the chapter introduces the book published five decades ago by Norval Morris and Gordon Hawkins whose challenge to their readers in 1970 was a motivator for the writing of this book.