SYDNEY, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The crime rate in Australia's Victoria state has soared 10.2 percent in a year, statistics showed.
Data released by the Crime Statistics Agency of Victoria on Thursday revealed that 552,005 offences were reported in Victoria in 2016, up from 500,971 in 2015.
When population growth is accounted for, the crime rate went up 8.1 percent or 9,119 offences per 100,000 people.
Aggravated burglaries and robberies accounted for much of the rise, climbing 40 percent and 25 percent respectively.
Fiona Dowsley, the Crime Statistics Agency Chief Statistician, said that a third of all reported offences were related to theft while dangerous and negligent acts endangering people rose 22 percent.
"Our analysis shows that more than one third of all recorded offences in Victoria are theft related," Dowsley said in a statement.
"The increase in thefts are driven by increases in motor vehicle theft and thefts from motor vehicles, with these offences making up nearly half of all theft offences."
Car thefts went up 27 percent, amounting 24,000 vehicles stolen across the state in 2016, a number Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp said was too high.
Crisp said that Victoria Police had returned to an old school style of policing which had contributed to arrest numbers going up 15 percent so far in 2017.
The Melbourne CBD was the worst area for crime with 27,299.4 offences reported per 100,000 people, up 5 percent from 2015 while the crime rate in the Latrobe Valley, east of Melbourne, went up 8.9 percent.
Other major offence categories which saw significant growth in 2016 were justice procedure offences (up 51.6 percent), transport regulation offences (43.3 percent), assault (11.8 percent) and drug use and possession offences (6.9 percent).
46 percent of all offenders were aged between 20 and 34, the Crime Statistics Agency said.
