Continued pandemic restrictions not just slowed the spread of COVID-19, it arrested Victoria's crime rate too.
Crime Statistics Agency figures released on Thursday showed Victoria last year recorded its lowest number of criminal offences since 2014.
There were 477,999 criminal offences recorded for the 2021 calendar year, representing a drop of 12.8 per cent or 70,087 offences from 2020.
Victoria Police say so far in 2022, criminal activity has been slow to resume in line with society's return to normality.
"Victorians, Melburnians in particular, had been in and out of lockdown. Our observation is there was some hesitancy in people moving back into a post-COVID normal" Deputy Commissioner of Regional Operations Rick Nugent said.
"Less use of public transport, people tended to stay closer to home, and people continued to work from home so that made a difference."
Mr Nugent noted the 1.5 per cent drop in family incidents in 2021 - the first decrease in such offences since 2017.
He said Victoria Police had been proactively checking on family violence victims throughout the lockdowns to ensure they were safe and supported.
Police also regularly spoke to known perpetrators to make sure they weren't breaching any orders or committing further offences.
Mr Nugent said while the drop in family incidents was pleasing, Victoria Police is taking a cautious approach to the data.
"You get fluctuations in crime," Mr Nugent said.
"Let's continue to do everything we can to protect mostly women and children. Hopefully this becomes a trend."
When asked about last weekend's fatal stabbings in Melbourne, Mr Nugent said they were tragic but not the norm.
"What we saw on a couple occasions were some callous cowards who hunted in packs," he said. "We just won't tolerate that.
"We are totally committed to disrupting and dismantling gangs in the state and we'll continue that focus."
There were 512 known gang members arrested across the state last year. They were charged with 5361 offences.
VICTORIAN CRIME STATISTICS
* Victimisation rate decreased by 3.3 per cent to 3000.2 reports per 100,000 Victorians
* Person-related victim reports decreased 3.6 per cent to 200,371
* Criminal incident rate decreased 13.0 per cent to 5,232.4 per 100,000 Victorians
* Number of criminal incidents down 13.2 per cent to 349,452
* Family violence order breaches increased 6.3 per cent
* Family incidents decreased 1.5 per cent to 91,144 incidents, the first decrease since 2017.
Source: Crime Statistics Agency
