Youth offences fall in Victoria but crime still 'unacceptably high'

Victoria's crime wave shows signs of falling, according to latest crime statistics Thu 18 Jun 2026 at 10:42am In short: Youth crime in Victoria fell by 6 per cent for the year to March, but adult crime rose by 10 per cent, according to the Crime Statistics Agency. The chief statistician says the figures suggest Victoria's crime wave is showing signs of falling. Victoria Police says crime is still "unacceptably high" and has risen by 26 per cent over the past three years. Youth crime fell last year in Victoria for the first time in four years, but adult crime rose by more than 10 per cent in the state, according to the latest statistics. The Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) has released its figures for the 12 months to March 2026, showing Victoria's overall crime rate fell by just under 2 per cent. The CSA said the figures showed youth crime falling for the first time since the COVID pandemic. There were 22,654 alleged offences involving young people, which was a fall of 6 per cent on the previous year. However, adult crime rose by 10 per cent, which the CSA attributed to increases in breaches of bail, retail theft and breaches of family violence orders. CSA chief statistician Fiona Dowsley said Victoria's crime wave appeared to have reached its peak. "We are just starting to go down," she told ABC Radio Melbourne. She said figures, including a 16 per cent fall in burglaries, were a promising sign that overall crime would continue to fall. "When we see changes around some of those offences, which we know have been influenced to some degree at least by cost of living, that's when we'll see those bigger shifts in the overall statistics," she said. Ms Dowsley said the number of youth offenders in Victoria was down by 260 to about 7,000, and the number of first-time youth offenders had fallen by more than 1,000. "That's the lowest rate of first-time offenders we've had coming into the criminal justice system in over 10 years,"she said. The government said crime was still "unacceptably high", but it was claiming credit for the fall in youth crime and burglaries. "There's more work to do, but crime is down, youth offending is down and more people are being jailed not bailed," Police Minister Anthony Carbines said. "We give police what they need to keep Victorians safe — more powers, tougher laws and stronger consequences." Earlier this week, the government announced it was raising the maximum penalty for recruiting children to commit crime to life in prison. The move comes amid concerns organised crime groups are recruiting children to carry out firebombings of hospitality venues and other serious crimes. Victoria Police said despite the small decrease in the latest figures, the overall crime rate had still increased by 26 per cent over the past three years. It said children remained "heavily over-represented" in serious and violent crimes such as robberies, carjackings and home invasions. "While pleasing to see overall crime slightly decrease, the reality is that overall crime in Victoria still remains far higher than both police and the community would like," Deputy Commissioner Bob Hill said. "This is why we are absolutely committed to ensuring our highly trained officers are where they are needed most — in the community, patrolling the streets, deterring criminal behaviour and preventing crime." Victoria Police highlighted car theft as an area of concern, saying the state recorded the highest number of such offences since 2001-02. More than 31,000 cars were stolen last year, with key-mimicking technology continuing to be a large contributing factor. A total of 625,426 offences were recorded, which was a decrease of 0.2 per cent on the previous year. There was a 6.3 per cent increase in thefts, which totalled more than 44,000 alleged incidents. Of those, more than 20,000 incidents involved theft from a retail store, which was an increase of 11.7 per cent on the same period the previous year.