EDITORIAL
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When the Crime Statistics Agency was set up several years ago one of its most important objectives was to give an independent snapshot of the number and changes in recorded crime.
It was critical that the agency was operated at arms length from the Victoria Police, where in many ways the trends in these figures point at how well they are carrying out their key performance objectives.
But even more so the statistics needed to be released independently of the politicians who had even more of a vested interest in spinning them to fit their agenda.
As always statistics can be made, with some creative licence, to say whatever someone wants them to say and this is amplified in an election year.
But the more interesting question, beyond whether the police are doing their job, is whether we as a society are safer and whether we feel safer?
Much of the answer to this comes down to perception (of which the media plays no small part) and while the latest statistics show an overall drop in crime across Victoria and some considerable improvements in Ballarat, that is of little consolation to someone who has personally experienced a crime.
Even minor crimes like burglary, which have dropped from 1299 incidents to 1138 in Ballarat, do not necessarily translate into perception, if you yourself have been burgled.
Apart from the fact that this figure is still three break-ins per day, the common reaction after a burglary is a sense of violated private space and a feeling of being less safe.
This effect is even more amplified with crimes against the person.
Robbery remains relatively stable and at a rate of less than one a week may grab more headlines than equates to a reality of how dangerous our streets are.
But of the categories to grow in Ballarat, one that has skyrocketed is stalking, harassment and violations of intervention orders.
Assaults have increased at a rate of about 5 percent from a low in 2015 but these include family violence.
The ABS Survey of Safety shows nationwide women are particularly vulnerable, the rate who suffered violence rising from 1.2 percent in 2012 to 1.8 in 2016.
Even worse, 87 per cent of the women were sexually assaulted by a man they knew, with forty percent of these occurring in their own homes. It is also still occurring at shocking levels within relationships; 17 percent of women have suffered violence by a partner.
When it comes to the place where everyone should feel safe, there is still much work to do.
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