Victoria’s crime rate has increased by 15%, with cost-of-living pressures contributing to a rise in theft and youth offenders singled out as responsible for the majority of robberies.
The Crime Statistics Agency on Thursday released data showing 627,268 criminal offences were recorded in Victoria in the 12 months to March 2025 – a 17.1% increase from the previous year. When adjusted for population, the crime rate per 100,000 people was 8,838.7, marking a 15.2% rise.
Police said they arrested 25,917 people a combined 75,968 times in the year to March – the equivalent of 208 arrests per day. They said it was the third consecutive quarter where they recorded “the most arrests since electronic records began in 1993 and most likely, in Victoria police’s 172-year history”.
The five fastest-growing crimes were property offences, which police said was “traditionally the case in difficult economic times” when “cost-of-living pressures bite”. These include theft from a motor vehicle (up 39.3% since March 2024), theft of number plates (up 49.6%), theft from a retail store (up 38.6%) and other theft offence (up 20.%), with petrol the most common item stolen in this category.
Car theft was also among the fast-growing crimes, increasing by 47.1% to its highest levels since 2002. Police said the spike in car theft comes as offenders exploit electronic devices programmed to mimic keys, with Holdens, Subarus and Toyotas most targeted.
They said there had also been a 73% increase in stolen cars being involved in collisions, six of which have resulted in deaths.
Youth offending also continues to grow, with crimes committed by children aged 10 to 17 up 17.9%. It is the second quarter in a row that youth crime rates have reached record levels.
Police said children only accounted for 13.1% of all offenders but they were overrepresented in serious and violent crimes such as robberies (63.1%), aggravated burglaries (46%) and car theft (26.9%).
Both the police and the Victorian government stressed the impact of the state’s controversial new bails laws would not be evident in the data, as they only came into effect on 28 March.
The state’s police minister, Anthony Carbines, said the data was “unacceptable” and the government’s bail laws would target the repeat offenders responsible.
The laws scrap the principle of remand only as a “last resort” for accused youth offenders. In its place, community safety has become the “overarching principle” when deciding bail for children and adults.
It also revives two bail offences – “committing an indictable offence while on bail for indictable offence” and “breaching of condition of bail” – which each add three months’ imprisonment to any other sentence imposed.
Carbines said since the laws had come into effect, there had been a “100%” increase in youth offenders and 31% increase in adult offenders remanded in custody since the changes came into effect.
“We’ll start to see those tougher bail laws have an effect on some of our crime statistics in future quarters … they aren’t reflected in the current quarter because there’s only probably one or two days where they apply,” he said.
Carbines also noted the government had introduced a new bill to parliament this week to criminalise offenders “posting and boasting” on social media about serious crimes such as affray, burglary and robbery, car theft, carjacking, home invasions and violent disorder. The new offence will result in up two years’ additional jail time.
The Victorian opposition leader, Brad Battin, said: “These aren’t just statistics. They’re people. Each and every time a crime is committed, someone feels less safe in their home, somebody feels less safe in the street, someone feels less safe in their community.
“The figures we’re seeing today are scary. They’re breaking records we don’t want to see broken.”
