Drugs, weapons drive crime-rate jump

Drugs, weapons and explosives, coupled with unruly public behaviour have fuelled a spike in Victoria's crime rate.

The number of criminal offences has surged 21,347, or 5.6 per cent, to 403,618, in the 12 months to March, according to Victoria Police crime statistics.

Crimes involving weapons, explosives and bad behaviour in public places posted the biggest rise, climbing 20.8 per cent.

Deputy Commissioner Lucinda Nolan attributed the increase to police stepping up crime detection, mainly with drug offences and unruly public behaviour.

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Drug offences alone rose 2579, or 14.6 per cent, to 20,270. The statistics compared the 12 months to March 2013 with the 12 months to March 2012.

Ms Nolan was particularly concerned that family violence still covered the bulk of all crime.

'Total crime is still increasing. This is still a concern to us, especially with family violence-related offences accounting for 38.6 per cent of crime against the person, Ms Nolan said.

Crime against the person jumped 7.4 per cent per 100,000 population. This is largely due to an increase in the rate of assaults, which was up 11.9 per cent, Ms Nolan said.

But having said that, we take some satisfaction from knowing the rate of increase has slowed since last quarter and we're trending in the right direction, especially around robberies, property damage and theft of motor vehicles.

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Drugs, weapons drive crime-rate jump