The rate of assaults in Queensland is nearly three times worse than it was four years ago, government data shows.
On Monday, the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office (QGSO) released new crime data for 2022–23, showing a surge in violent crime for that financial year.
Nearly three in four victims of crime had fallen prey to an assault, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women severely over-represented in the data.
The report noted an “unprecedented” increase in Aboriginal victims of crime, as the number more than doubled in two years from 4,504 unique victims to 9,306.
Aboriginal women were 8.3 times more likely to be assaulted than non-Indigenous women, at 6,415.5 victims per 100,000 population compared to 777 per 100,000 population of non-Indigenous women.
Despite widespread media reports of a “Queensland youth crime wave”, the rate of youth criminals decreased 26.8 per cent in nine years from 2,700 per 100,000 population to 1,977.4 per 100,000.
The most violent cohort of Queenslanders was actually those in the 30–39 age bracket, who committed nearly a quarter of all assaults.
Queenslanders aged between 30–39 in 2022–23 committed 4,761 assaults out of a total of 19,977 committed that financial year.
Fewer young people committed crimes in 2021–22 than at any point in recorded Queensland history.
The new youth crime data comes days after the now-defunct Youth Justice Reform Committee tabled its interim report to parliament.
The committee sensationally dissolved after Labor and LNP committee members failed to reach an agreement over several key recommendations of the report.
One key disagreement was whether to regulate news and social media, which, the committee heard, had created “fear-mongering” on the topic of youth crime.
The statistician’s report noted that the latest youth crime rate could be inflated since extra police resources had been specifically allocated to targeting youth recidivists.
The data showed that although there were fewer youth criminals, the ones that did exist were more likely to be repeat offenders.
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