The proportion of people committing criminal acts in Queensland is the lowest in a decade, but crimes like assault, rape and attempted rape are occurring twice as frequently, new crime statistics reveal.
Domestic violence order breaches have also tripled since 2013.
A summary of a report from the Queensland Government Statistician's Office shows the proportion of both youth and adult offenders in 2021-22 is the lowest since records began in 2012-13.
The rate of unique youth offenders fell by 31 per cent — to 1,926.4 per 100,000 people in 2021/22, compared with 2,792.8 per 100,000 people in 2012-13.
Unique adult offenders fell by 19 per cent — to 2,276.6 per 100,000 people in 2021/22, compared with 2,811.3 per 100,000 people in 2012-13.
Over that same period, the rate of assaults increased by 118.1 per cent, the rates of rape and attempted rape increased by 115.5 per cent and domestic violence order (DVO) breaches by 221.4 per cent.
Unlawful entry had decreased by 18.5 per cent over the 10-year period.
"As a percentage of the population, the cohort of adult offenders is the smallest on record — the cohort of youth offenders continues to get smaller ... but that smaller cohort is actually inflicting quite significant harm on our community," Police Minister Mark Ryan said.
"They're committing more offences and more serious offences."
It's a trend the Queensland government and police have pointed to when announcing controversial youth crime legislation.
The summary statistics show the total number of offences across Queensland increased by 8.1 per cent from the previous year.
That's mainly due to a 46.3 per cent increase in "offences against the person".
"That's often an offence associated with violence or trauma so that is obviously of particular concern," Mr Ryan said.
More domestic violence offences
In 2021-22, the number of assaults recorded across the state increased by 60.8 per cent, robbery increased by 18.4 per cent and sexual offences by 14 per cent compared to the previous year.
However, the statistician notes this could be due to a change in the way police record domestic violence offences "requiring police officers to record … all criminal offences associated with domestic and family violence incidents".
Mr Ryan said increased reporting of domestic and family violence and the creation of new domestic violence offences may have also contributed to the increase – but he points out "even one instance is one too many".
"As awareness around support services and interventions become more well known more and more people come forward and report domestic violence," he said.
"The other thing is, the parliament has strengthened laws around DV there's been new offences created (such as) strangulation.
"All of that leads to more offences being detected and obviously more consequence for those offences."
Property offences also increased by 12.9 per cent from the previous year – including increases in theft, unlawful entry and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.
The summary report shows decreases in weapons offences (down 11.4 per cent), drug offences (down by 19.6 per cent) and good order offences (down 7 per cent).
