Crime rate in city drops

But sex assaults, homicide rates among increases

THE overall Gold Coast crime rate has dipped but homicide, sexual assaults, common assaults and robbery have risen.

The rate of drug crime has had a major drop, falling more than 17 per cent in the past year, official crime figures released yesterday.

Overall the city recorded a 3.7 per cent decrease in the crime rate but homocide soared 36 per cent, sexual as- saults jumped 20.5 per cent and armed robbery climbed 9.1 per cent.

The city ranked 12th out of 19 local government areas for its overall crime rate based on offences per head of population in the independent report.

The Queensland Outback topped the list with the worst crime rate rise at 0.8 per cent.

Bond University criminologist Terry Goldsworthy said the figures, which compare the 2018 financial year to the previous one, were due to less policing.

“The lion’s share of any reduction we are seeing is being driven primarily by less police activity,” he said.

“Offences against a person has seen a slight decreases and offences against property have gone up. Other offences categories – weapons, drink driving, good order offences – which are all generated by police, have decreased by 12 per cent which is driving that overall drop.

“What concerns me is we’re seeing much less enforcement, we’ve seen some operations in recent days so maybe the penny has dropped.”

The report also revealed rape and attempted rape cases reported has nearly doubled in nine years.

Cases rose almost 16 per cent on the previous year, while sexual assault offences grew more than 20 per cent with 582 reported between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018.

Mr Goldsworthy said it was likely the #MeToo movement and high-profile cases had had an impact on how many were reported to police.

“I suspect we are seeing more people prepared to report and more people reporting conduct they may not have throught was inappropriate,”he said.

Assaults were also higher with a 20 per cent lift since 2007 and a 7 per cent increase in serious assaults compared to the year before.