The cost-of-living crisis is fuelling an increase in retail theft in Victoria, police say, with hardship driving more people into first-time offending.
Retail theft increased last year by 38.7% in the state – growing from 20,309 incidents in 2022 up to 28,174, according to the Crime Statistics Agency.
“This offence has remained the greatest riser in recent quarters, driven predominantly by the theft of items such as liquor, groceries, and clothes,” Victoria police said in a statement on Thursday.
“Cost-of-living pressures and rising inflation are linked to this increase.”
Police estimated up to 40% of retail theft offenders were first-time offenders.
Outside groceries, alcohol and clothing, the most common good stolen was petrol, then mobile phones.
The cost-of-living crisis intensified last year, with the consumer price index rising to 4.1% for the 12 months to December.
The chief executive of the Victorian Council of Social Service (Vcoss), Juanita Pope, said the state had a responsibility to ensure people weren’t pushed so far into poverty they considered stealing.
“If people take essentials like food without paying it’s because they are absolutely desperate and can’t see any other way,” Pope said.
“People don’t need a heavy-handed police response – they need support. Every part of our social support system should be strengthened so taking essential items without paying doesn’t become an option.”
A key solution was raising the rate of jobseeker and related welfare payments, so people had enough money to live on, Pope said.
Thefts from motor vehicles showed the greatest increases of all categories of crime, the statistics showed, with 56,810 offences last year, but fewer than in 2019. Police said the most commonly stolen items in these thefts were registration plates and tools.
Victoria’s crime rate fell during the Covid pandemic lockdown periods, and has been slowly increasing since, with the overall crime rate last year 2.3% below 2019.
The chief commissioner of Victoria Police, Shane Patton, noted on Thursday that the crime rate was still low compared to previous years, but that police were keen to continue focusing on youth offending.
Children aged between 14 and 17 were responsible for 18,729 incidents, up 29.4% on 2022, which represented the highest rate of offending among this cohort since 2009.
“These crime statistics, noting that they’re crimes against people or property, they’re lower than 2019, which is pleasing,” Patton told ABC Radio.
“Victoria is largely a very safe state, but we have got significant issues with child offending and those children under 18, which is why we’re actually focusing on that specific cohort.”
Under current Victorian law, children as young as 10 can be arrested, charged and imprisoned. The state Labor government has committed to raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12 by the end of this year and to 14 by the end of 2027 to bring the state in line with international human rights obligations.
