Criminal activity in Victoria, Australia is addressed by Victoria Police, the Victorian court system, and community-based initiatives. The Crime Statistics Agency compiles and publishes quarterly updates on recorded offences, victim reports, and offender incidents.
In the year ending 31 March 2025, Victoria recorded a total of 474,937 criminal incidents, an increase of 20.1% from the previous year. The number of offences rose by 17.1% to 627,268, while alleged offender incidents increased by 19.4%. Reports involving person victims rose by 20.1%, and family violence incidents increased by 10.7%. Incidents involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also rose significantly, with alleged offender incidents up 36.2% in the year to March 2025.
The Local Government Areas (LGAs) with the highest criminal incident rates were:
Melbourne – 17,792.1 incidents per 100,000 residents (21.3%) Yarra – 12,767.2 (22.6%) Latrobe – 12,333.8 (10.7%) Mildura – 11,042.5 (4.8%) Ararat – 10,885.3 (25.2%)
The highest offence rates were recorded in:
Melbourne – 22,955.5 offences per 100,000 residents Latrobe – 17,287.3 Yarra – 15,467.9 Greater Shepparton – 15,046.9 Ararat – 14,844.4
While some regional LGAs have consistently high crime rates, Victoria overall has historically maintained a comparatively low crime rate in both national and international contexts. In particular, homicide rates remain lower than in many comparable jurisdictions. During the colonial period (1851 to 1901), the most common offence was drunkenness, and by 1907, it accounted for around 40 per cent of all convictions nationwide. Early crime records prior to Australian Federation are considered inconsistent, except for homicide data, which was more reliably recorded.
Crime statistics The rate of recorded offences in Victoria has fluctuated over the past decade, with notable increases in the most recent reporting periods. According to data from the Crime Statistics Agency, the overall offence rate rose to 8,838.7 per 100,000 people in the year ending March 2025, the highest level since 2017. The largest increases were seen in property and deception offences, which rose sharply from the previous year, as well as crimes against the person and justice procedures offences
Offence rates had generally declined between 2017 and 2022, with a notable dip in the immediate post-COVID-19 period. However, the trend has reversed since 2023.
+Recorded Offences in Victoria (2016–2025) per 100,000 People – Year Ending MarchOffence2016201720182019202020212022202320242025Crimes against the person1,201.11,261.71,248.01,236.01,252.81,282.91,241.41,244.71,234.81,369.1Property and deception offences 5,052.25,141.44,476.14,403.44,729.83,864.83,587.13,833.14,288.75,221.8Drug offences 498.3490.3445.7495.0512.7609.6450.2459.2438.6460.8Public order and security offences 605.4567.1540.1541.1478.2477.9424.2438.7396.6413.3Justice procedures offences1,094.51,114.31,080.81,166.41,201.21,290.71,209.81,287.21,290.51,350.2Other offences25.326.126.027.419.3591.4175.819.125.123.4Grand Total8,449.98,600.77,816.67,869.38,194.08,117.57,088.67,282.07,674.48,838.7
Massacres of Aboriginal Victorians
Though often not recorded as crimes at the time, numerous crimes were perpetrated against Aboriginal Victorians throughout the colonial period. Among the most heinous of these crimes were massacres. The following list tallies the better documented massacres of Aboriginal Victorians. The information provided below is based on ongoing research 'Violence on the Australian Colonial Frontier, 1788–1960' undertaken by the Australian Research Council.
1833–34 Convincing Ground massacre – Between 60 and 200 Gunditjmara men, women and children were reported to have been murdered. Committed on the shore near Portland, Victoria, it was one of the largest recorded massacres in Victoria. 1839 Campaspe Plains massacre – Between 40–50 Taungurung and Dja Dja Wurrung people were murdered by a group of settlers, led by Charles Hutton at Campaspe Creek, Central Victoria.Bain Attwood, pp7-9 My Country. A history of the Djadja Wurrung 1837–1864, Monash Publications in History:25, 1999, 1839 Murdering Gully massacre – Around 35–40 Djargurd Wurrung people were murdered near Camperdown, Victoria. The massacre was committed by Frederick Taylor and others in retaliation for some sheep being killed.Ian D. Clark, pp103-118, Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995 1840–50 Gippsland massacres – Between 250 and 1,000 Kurnai people were murdered during a 13-year period, many of the murders were committed by groups led by Angus McMillan. 1840 Fighting Hills massacre – Between 20 and 80 Jardwadjali men, women, and children were murdered by Whyte brothers (William, George, Pringle and James Whyte). Near Hamilton, Victoria.Fighting Hills massacre: Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil, p.300. Michael Cannon,Life in the Country,1978 p.76. Chris Clark, The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles, Allen & Unwin, 2010 p.16. 1840 Fighting Waterholes massacre – The Whyte brothers murdered a further 40 Konongwootong Gunditj people.Fighting Waterholes massacre: 1843 Warrigal Creek massacre – Between 100–150 Gunai people were murdered by a group of around 20 colonists led by a Scottish colonist and pastoralist, Angus McMillan.Warrigal Creek massacre: Ben Kiernan, Blood and soil: a world history of genocide and extermination from Sparta to Darfur, Yale University Press, 2007 p.298 Michael Cannon, Life in the Country: Australia in the Victorian Age,:2, (1973) Nelson 1978 p.78
Convicts
Convicts were never directly transported to Victoria, however at least 300 convicts arrived in Sorrento in 1803 as part of Colonel David Collin's short-lived, first attempt at British settlement in Victoria, in 1804. This first group of convicts also included the famous escaped convict William Buckley. Over the following decades small numbers of convicts were sent from Tasmania and New South Wales to carry out government work, surveying and labour.
Eureka Stockade
From the 28th of November till the 3 December 1854 the Eureka Stockade took place in what is now the suburb of Eureka, Ballarat. Gold prospectors staged an uprising against the colonial government which lead to an armed conflict; 22 miners and 6 soldiers were killed. The event is significant in Australian history, particularly in regards to the development of democracy.Corfield, Justin, Wickham, Dorothy, Gervasoni, Clare, Ballarat Heritage Services, The Eureka Encyclopaedia, 2004 In the colony's capital of Melbourne there was enormous support from the public for the captured Eureka rebels, this support was one of the factors that lead to the creation of the Electoral Act 1856, leading to colonists being granted male suffrage, on condition of owning property, in the lower house in the Victorian parliament.
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
In January 2012 widespread sexual and other abuse of children by personnel in religious organisations was exposed by the Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry.Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry Report The inquiry recommended that a formal investigation should be conducted into the processes by which religious organisations respond to the criminal abuse of children within their organisation. In response to the inquires recommendations, the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Ken Lay argued that the Roman Catholic Church's attempts to hinder investigations be criminalised.
Later in 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, announced the creation of a Royal Commission into sex abuse within the Catholic Church. An estimated 60,000 Australians were abused in churches, schools, sporting clubs and health services, with the majority of the abuse occurring in New South Wales and Victoria. Institutions that failed to respond appropriately or effectively to widespread child sex abuse in Victoria include: the Anglican Church, the Catholic Church, The Salvation Army, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Australian Christian Churches, Australian Pentecostal churches, Yeshivah Melbourne and the Christian Brothers among others. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that one school run by the Christian Brothers, St Alipius boys school in Ballarat East, was staffed almost entirely by paedophiles.
The Royal Commission found many of the worst incidents in Victoria occurred in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat. One of Australia's most infamous paedophiles, former priest Gerald Ridsdale was based in Ballarat and protected by church hierarchy, who shifted Ridsdale from parish to parish, between 1961 and 1988, in order to cover-up Ridsdales crimes. Ridsdale was convicted of 138 sex offences against children, he sexually abused as many as 50 children.
On 11 December 2018, Ballarat born former Cardinal George Pell, was convicted on five counts of child sexual abuse of two boys in the 1990s. Pell was eventually acquitted by the High Court of Australia.
Melbourne Despite Melbourne's CBD having the state's highest crime rate (15,949.9) the city is considered one of the safest in the world, with Melbourne being ranked the 5th safest city globally. The notably low crime rate is one of the factors that led to Melbourne being named the world's most liveable city by The Economist for seven years in a row up until 2017. The recorded homicide rate of Melbourne was 2.2 per 100,000 in 2018.
Notable major crimes and criminal figures
Squizzy Taylor – Joseph Theodore Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor was an Australian gangster from Fitzroy, Melbourne. He was a prominent figure and appeared repeatedly in Melbourne news media. He was involved in the 1919 Melbourne gang war and was eventually shot dead in 1927. John Wren – John Wren was an Australian underworld figure from Collingwood, Victoria. Wren is best known for being the real life inspiration for the similarly named fictional character, John West in Frank Hardy's novel Power Without Glory. Mark "Chopper" Read – Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read was an Australian criminal, gang member and author. Read wrote a series of semi-autobiographical fictional crime novels and children's books and was the subject of the biographical film Chopper, starring Eric Bana. Russell Street bombing – The Russell Street bombing was a car bombing that took place in Melbourne's CBD in March 1986. The car bomb was detonated outside the Russell Street Police Headquarters complex in Russell Street, Melbourne. The blast killed a policewoman and injured 22 others. Hoddle Street massacre – The Hoddle Street massacre was a mass shooting that took place on a busy main road near the Clifton Hill train station, on Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill. The shootings resulted in the deaths of seven people, and serious injury to 19 others. Julian Knight, a 19-year-old former Australian Army officer cadet was arrested and charged for the shootings.
Queen Street Massacre – The Queen Street massacre was a spree-killing committed by Frank Vitkovic. The spree-killing occurred on the 8th of December 1987 on Queen Street. Vitkovic killed 9 people including himself, and injured five others.Murphy, Damien (10 December 1987). "Killer leaves trail of carnage". The Age. p. 6. The Pettingill family and the Walsh St killing – The Pettingill family was a notorious Melbourne-based criminal family headed by matriarch Kath Pettingill. Victor Peirce and Trevor Pettingill were accused and acquitted of the 1988 Walsh Street police shootings, with both acquitted along with two fellow defendants. Victor Peirce was later killed in the Melbourne gangland killings.