Crime in the Northern Territory is managed by the Northern Territory Police (law enforcement), the territory government's Department of the Attorney-General and Justice (courts and adult prisons) and Territory Families (youth justice and youth detention centres).
Figures show that for the 10 years preceding 2015, the Northern Territory (NT) had a consistently higher per capita rate for homicide and manslaughter than other Australian states and territories, as well as a high level of assaults. Most assaults and murders were related to domestic violence, and most of these were alcohol-related. NT also has the lowest population and the highest level of social disadvantage of the states and territories.
Crime is more prevalent in Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek than in Darwin and Palmerston, despite the latter two being the first and second most populated cities in the Northern Territory, respectively. Alice Springs and Tennant Creek have been ranked as some of the most dangerous places in the world to live.
Crime across the Territory
The Northern Territory Police are responsible for law enforcement, the Department of the Attorney-General and Justice presides over the courts and prisons, and Northern Territory Families runs youth justice and detention centres across the Territory.
Aboriginal people are disproportionately represented as both perpetrators and victims, and many of the victims are women.
Data collated over the 10 years up to 2015 by the Australian Institute of Criminology's National Homicide Monitoring Program showed that the Northern Territory had a consistently higher per capita rate for murder and manslaughter than other Australian states and territories. Most assaults and homicides were related to domestic violence and most of these were alcohol-related.
In September 2016, the level of domestic violence in Aboriginal communities in NT was described as "out of control" by the Northern Territory Coroner, Greg Cavanagh. More than half of homicides and assaults were related to domestic violence and the overwhelming majority of victims were Aboriginal women. He recommended new laws to target and monitor repeat offenders; the use of body cameras by police, with footage able to be used as evidence, so that victims would not always need to appear in court; restricting alcohol supplies; and other strategies.
Demographics It also has the lowest population of Australian states and territories, at 245,800 , with many living in very remote areas, Estimated Resident Population 1 December 2018 and the highest level of social disadvantage and the highest proportion of Aboriginal people of all states and territories, at around 30% of the population in 2016. Much of the population is concentrated in Darwin (148,564), with 98,763 people spread across the rest of the Territory (2018 figures).
2014 Safe Streets Audit The 2014 Northern Territory Safe Streets Audit by the Australian Institute of Criminology and Charles Darwin University's Northern Institute reported findings from previous research as well as the results drawn from focus groups. "Factors that may contribute to heightened levels of fear in the Northern Territory include increased risk of victimisation for both violent and property crime, perceptions that crime is more frequent and serious than it actually is, lower levels of confidence in police and the impact of sensationalist media coverage."
The Audit analysed articles in the Centralian Advocate, NT News and Sunday Territorian for each of the first weeks of May in 2010, 2011 and 2012, which showed that between six and ten percent of news coverage was devoted to crime. Crimes involving violence, especially sexual violence, were over-represented compared with other crime types. Although victims' and offenders' indigeneity were typically not identified, crimes featuring Indigenous offenders and non-Indigenous victims received greater coverage than other crimes in the weeks studied.
However the report noted that fear reduction strategies were not as effective as targeting actual crime and offending. Noting evidence of crime "hotspots", the high incidence of domestic violence and the correlation with alcohol, it said "there is a need to implement evidence-based crime reduction strategies targeting both acute and chronic hotspots, as well as strategies that can reduce alcohol consumption and related harms, reduce the overrepresentation of Indigenous people as victims and offenders of violent crime and respond to high rates of domestic violence".
2017 Riley Review targets alcohol
A review in October 2017 by former chief justice Trevor Riley brought about huge changes to the Northern Territory's alcohol policies. The 220 recommendations included a floor price for all alcohol products at per standard drink, the reinstatement of an independent Liquor Commission, a complete rewrite of the Liquor Act (expected to take a year), and introducing licensing inspectors to help police at liquor outlets.
Recent trends In the year ending July 2019, the number of reported house break-ins across the Territory had reached its highest level since 2009, after a dip around 2015–6, but commercial break-ins had dropped. The rates in Alice Springs, Katherine and Palmerson were above average, but Darwin was below average. However, all categories of assault had dropped. Alcohol-related assaults were 24.2% below the previous year's figure, and 20% below the long-term average. Domestic-violence-related assault had dropped 11.66% against the previous year, and general assaults had dropped by 15.67%.
Overall, crimes against the person had dropped 14.67% against the previous year, and crimes against property 1.71%. The per capita offending rate had dropped in most categories, with the exception of house break-ins (17.07% up) and motor vehicle theft (0.8% up).
Reduction in alcohol-related crime
In the 10 months between 1 October 2018, the date that the alcohol floor price of a minimum of per standard drink and various other measures were imposed by the NT government following the Riley Review, and 31 July 2019, there was a 26% decrease in alcohol-related assaults in the Territory. In Alice Springs there was a 43% reduction in alcohol-related assaults and a 38% reduction in domestic violence; Tennant Creek dropped 28% in both categories; and in the Darwin area, alcohol-related assaults 16% and domestic violence by 9%.
Youth crime and justice
In 2017–18 the number of young offenders (i.e. aged 10–17 years old) in NT decreased by 27 offenders, or 4%, over the previous year. The rate per capita of young offenders was marginally higher than Western Australia and New South Wales, at about 2.7 per 100.
Often, a high proportion of the crime is perpetrated by repeat offenders. In Palmerston, up to 20 young people who at any given time regularly commit property and other offences have been identified, and youth represent 73.1% of apprehensions for break-ins. The NT Government created a new three-pronged strategy to target youth crime in the area, which included diversions, building a new youth justice facility and a new police station, and the creation of new recreation facilities and engagement programs. Violent crimes committed by young offenders are of particular concern.
The Youth Justice Court hears charges against young offenders in NT; for particularly serious offences, cases may be transferred to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory for sentencing.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's Youth justice in Australia 2017–18 report showed that the rate of young people aged 10–17 under supervision orders was highest in the Northern Territory, at 59 per 10,000 (compared with 10 in Victoria), and also for those in detention (15 per 10,000; Victoria, 2 per 10,000).
By city or town
Alice Springs 21st century background and history
Crime has been a significant social issue in Alice Springs in the 21st century, as in most of the rest of the Territory. Aboriginal people are disproportionately represented as both perpetrators and victims, and a high proportion of the victims are women.
In 2007, at the second reading of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007, preceding the controversial Intervention by the Howard government, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, described the Alice Springs Town Camps as "murder capitals". However, two 2009 studies showed that it was lower level-type of offending, such as traffic offences, that was responsible for most crimes committed by Aboriginal people in the NT.
The 2009 crime statistics revealed that violent crime in the town had soared, with reported assaults up 29% on the previous year, the highest number (1432) since statistics had been publicly recorded, and double that of 2004. Alcohol had played a part in about 65% of assaults, and more than half of them were classed as domestic violence. The NT Southern Region Police Commander said that itinerancy, domestic violence and alcohol were the main factors driving up crime rates.
The June 2010 report of the Northern Territory Justice Department's Quarterly Crime & Justice Statistics documented huge increases across multiple categories of crime in Alice Springs in the six years between the 2004 and 2010 reporting periods, largely due to the impact of the NT Police Force's "Violent Crime Reduction Strategy" introduced in 2004, which resulted in more offences being recorded and counted in the stats. Recorded cases of assault rose by 87%, sexual assault offences rose by 97%, house break-ins increased by 64%, commercial premises break-ins by 185%, and motor vehicle theft and related offences by 97% on 2004–05 figures. Compared with the previous reporting year, all categories except for commercial premises break-ins rose significantly.
After a prolonged spike in crime in early 2011, especially break-ins committed by young offenders, concern about the high levels of crime led to a public meeting attended by 250 people in February 2011, organised by a citizens' group called Action for Alice. Aboriginal elder Lindsay Bookie addressed the crowd of mainly white residents, expressing the view that the Intervention of 2007 had caused a lot of bad people from remote communities to move to Alice. Action for Alice put the spotlight on crime using TV advertisements. The over-representation of Aboriginal people in the crime statistics, as both perpetrators and victims, was attributed in part to the movement of people into Alice Springs from remote communities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda said that poverty and social dysfunction in the town camps around Alice Springs were part of the cause, and welcomed recent spending by the federal government of on housing and social services in the camps. The town camps were notorious for their drinking, violence and substandard living conditions.
In 2012, John McRoberts, Northern Territory Police Commissioner, said that there had been social dysfunction in Alice Springs over 30 years. Stephanie Bell, Director of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress said that there had been some positive changes brought about by government programs, but "the impact of years of neglect and failure of services and programs is now at a point where it is escalating beyond everyone's capacity, and we have to work collaboratively to address it". Assaults were common in Aboriginal town camps and 95% of people in the town fleeing domestic violence were Indigenous, sometimes filling a shelter housing 900 people. Housing in the 17 town camps, where people from remote communities stay when visiting Alice Springs for medical and other services, was very overcrowded, and the young people were looking for excitement when they came to town.