By Danielle Kutchel
The City of Casey experienced a shocking increase in family violence incidents in the year to December 2020, according to the latest crime statistics.
It’s been revealed that the Casey local government area (LGA) experienced a 15.2 per cent increase in family violence incidents – 5406 recorded family incidents, compared to 4691 for the same period in 2019.
The City of Casey’s family incident rate per 100,000 population was 1480.3 to end of December 2020, above the statewide rate of 1379.7.
Family members aged between 25-34 were most frequently affected, with more females affected than males.
And Casey’s family incident numbers far outstrip those of our neighbours in the Southern Metro policing region.
Across the border in Cardinia Shire there were 1550 family incidents; in Greater Dandenong, 2818; and in Frankston, 2724.
In fact, Casey’s numbers aren’t just the highest in the Southern Metro region – they’re the highest in the state.
Hume and Greater Geelong came close, at 4272 and 4283 respectively.
However, per 100,000 population Casey’s numbers are slightly less confronting, at a rate of 1480.3 family incidents.
This compares to 1894.9 in Frankston, 1657.8 in Dandenong and 1322.8 in Cardinia.
Across Victoria, there was a 9 per cent increase in family violence incidents reported to police in 2020, with the actual average monthly numbers higher than what was forecast.
CEO of Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre, Rita Butera, said that the “significant” rates of family violence were “concerning”.
“Safe Steps has noticed a significant increase in calls to our service, probably a 20 per cent increase,” Ms Butera said.
Some of those calls have been from family, friends and neighbours concerned for a loved one’s safety, she said, as awareness of family violence increases in the community.
While she said that much of the prevention work being undertaken in the space was focused on long-term cultural change, she said Covid had led to an increased awareness of family violence and increased effort by State and Federal governments to counter the scourge.
“I think it’s important to understand that Covid doesn’t cause family violence,” she said.
“However, there are factors that may be contributing to it … in the past, many people would have had safety plans and ways of managing in a family. It may be the kids being at school, having opportunities to visit friends or get out of house when you need to, but during lockdown in particular all those protective factors were kind of taken away – so the risk of course increased during that time because of that.”
Safe Steps is able to provide support in a number of ways, including assisting victim-survivors to stay in their own home with added security, providing emergency accommodation and providing assistance for pets.
“And if we can’t support directly, we make sure people are referred to the right place,” she said.
The stats also showed that more generally, crime was up 3.9 per cent in Casey, with 17,296 criminal incidents recorded, compared to 16,646 in 2019.
Cranbourne was Casey’s top suburb for criminal incidents, and crimes committed in the home increased. Crime was also up in Hampton Park and Cranbourne North, but decreased in Berwick and Narre Warren.
Criminal incidents in shopping complexes decreased over the year.
A new category of crime, public health and safety offences, saw 1500 incidents recorded in Casey.
According to the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA), there were 37,505 offences recorded by police for breaches of Covid-19 Chief Health Officer Directions in 2020. The majority were committed between April and October.
These were recorded against 26,497 unique Covid-19 offenders, 92 per cent of whom received a fine.
CSA chief statistician Fiona Dowsley said that: “changes in mobility and everyday activity during COVID-19 restrictions have influenced crime trends, with decreases recorded in steal from a retail store and other property related offences, while the introduction of new Covid-19-related offences have seen an increase in alleged offenders processed by Victoria Police. There has also been a reduction in the number of recorded victims of crime.”
There was an 8 per cent decrease in offences reported to police in the year ending December 2020 (from 538,454 to 497,704 offences 2020 – excluding Covid-19-related offences).
There was also a decline in the number of offences committed from March 2020, most notably for property and deception offences such as burglary/break and enter and theft and these crime trends had not returned to pre-pandemic levels when the data was released.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations, Rick Nugent, said that for the most part, fines deterred people from doing the wrong thing during the Covid pandemic.
He added that, generally, the community obeyed the directions and rules in place throughout lockdown.
Now, the concern for police is on keeping crime numbers low.
“The more people are out, the more homes are empty, the more opportunities there are for criminals to steal,” he said.
“It would be lovely to keep these numbers. We’re really focused on holding it.”
With the imminent removal of JobKeeper and rollback of the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement on the horizon, Mr Nugent said police had their eye on the future
“[It’s] highly likely people who have been supported financially … haven’t needed to commit crimes to get those dollars in,” he said.
“We know there are people struggling, this pandemic has been horrific for so many. So many businesses have had to shut down.
“It must be incredibly difficult for so many people, so we’ll keep an eye on that and work with the community and work with others to ensure we do all we can to prevent other crimes.”
For family violence support, please contact:
Safe Steps Victoria’s 24/7 family violence response centre
Tel: 1800 015 188 (24 hours)
Webchat: safesteps.org.au (9am – midnight Mon-Fri)
If you are in immediate danger, call Triple Zero on 000.
