crim e RESEARCH centre Crimes Reported to Police Western Australia 2006 J A Fernandez M R J Walsh M G Maller W Wrapson Annual Statistical Report Series No. 1/ 2008: Crimes Reported to Police, Western Australia 2006 June 2008
CRIME RESEARCH CENTRE The University of Western Australia 14-16 Parkway, Crawley Western Australia, 6009 Telephone: +61 86488 2830 Facsimile: +61 86488 7918 Email: crime.research@uwa.edu.au Director Dr Frank Morgan Authors John Fernandez, Senior Research Officer, Crime Research Centre, The University of Western Australia Matt Walsh, Computing Assistant, Crime Research Centre, The University of Western Australia Max Maller, Principal Research Analyst, Crime Research Centre, The University of Western Australia Wendy Wrapson, Research Associate, Crime Research Centre, The University of Western Australia Citation Instructions Fernandez, J.A., Walsh, M.R.J., Maller, M.G., & Wrapson, W. (2008). Crimes Reported to Police, Western Australia 2006. Annual Statistical Report Series No. 1/2008. Crime Research Centre, University of Western Australia.
Contents Preface... iv Crimes Reported to Police 2006 1 Introduction... 1 2 Crimes Reported to Police in Western Australia... 2 3 Location of Offences Reported to Police... 5 4 Offences Against The Person... 24 5 National Crime Statistics... 28 Supplementary Tables - Reported Offences... 30 Appendix A Caveats on Police Data... 36 Appendix B Australian Standard Offence Classification... 38 Appendix C Draft Seriousness Index... 42 Appendix D Glossary of Terms... 48 iii
Preface This Statistical Report examines crimes reported to police in Western Australia during 2006 and is the first in a series of online statistical reports allowing access to a wide range of criminal justice information. Other reports in the series will follow, covering police arrests and juvenile cautions, adult court records, children s court appearances, adult imprisonment and community corrections. Henceforth, the complete series for each year will replace information previously published in our annual report Crime and Justice Statistics for Western Australia. This series is made possible by the co-operation of the Western Australia Police Service, Department of the Attorney General, and Department of Corrective Services. The goodwill and constructive working relationships between the Centre and these organizations has ensured the continuing production of its statistical report series for nearly two decades. Within the Centre, this series is the product of teamwork, patience and a commitment to collecting, collating and analyzing data. The meticulous tasks of data validation and extraction, producing statistics, and assembling the report were the responsibilities of John Fernandez, Anna Ferrante, Nini Loh, Max Maller, Matt Walsh and Wendy Wrapson. Frank Morgan Director Crime Research Centre iv
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 1 Introduction During 2006, information about crimes committed in the community and reported to the police was collected by the Western Australia Police Service and entered into their Incidentbased Management System (IMS) 1. This report includes all reported crime in 2006 that was recorded in IMS. The data collected include details about the incident, victims, offenders and offences; for example, the sex, age and Indigenous status of the victim and offender, the type of offence and the place where it occurred, among others 2. Throughout this report, these details will be presented in the form of tables, charts and relevant discussion. Separate sections are given to location of offences and offences against the person. Drug offences are included in the data, even though they, like other offences such as liquor licensing, drink driving and some good order offences, are usually the result of police-initiated activity or discovery rather than citizen complaint 3. Trends are presented and discussed for key offence categories, in particular, those relating to homicides. At the end of the report there are several more detailed and comprehensive tables. Also included is a summary of selected results of national crime statistics for 2006 and crime maps showing the incidence of crimes in the Perth metropolitan area, reported by suburb 4. This report uses the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC) system to group and describe offences 5. Like many classification systems, ASOC attempts to group similar behaviours together. While there are some similarities in classification to the previous system (ANCO), there are also some important differences. For example, the offences of Driving Under the Influence and Dangerous or Negligent Driving now appear in the sub-division of Dangerous or Negligent Operation of a Vehicle, which in turn is part of the division of Dangerous or Negligent Acts Endangering Persons. Under the ANCO system, such offences were coded to the division of Motor Vehicle Offences. This report has attempted to maintain comparability of offence groups but only insofar as the changes in classification systems have permitted. It should also be noted that, like ANCO, the ASOC system does not attempt to order offences by their relative seriousness or harm. However, a seriousness index based on ASOC has been developed by the Crime Research Centre which ranks offences by their relative seriousness. Refer to Appendix C (Draft Seriousness Index) for further information. Data presented for 2006 are comparable with those presented in previous editions of Crime and Justice Statistics for Western Australia. However, there are several factors which may, but not necessarily, affect yearly comparisons, such as the introduction of the new IMS for recording crime, the change to the ASOC offence classification system and fluctuations in the number of offences with no information about things such as Indigenous status and victim-offender relationship. Further, recent changes to family and domestic violence legislation has resulted in more incidents of this nature being recorded. 1. Since 1991 the repository of this information was the Offence Information System (OIS), but from late 2002 to mid-2004 a new Incident-based Management System (IMS) was implemented throughout the state. 2. Data are subject to the caveats listed in Appendix A. 3. Prior to 1994, drug offences were excluded from OIS. 4. Maps illustrating offence rates per thousand persons or households are based on the 2006 Census estimates of population and households. 5. For more information refer to ANCO and ASOC in the report Glossary in Appendix D. 1
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 2 Crimes Reported to Police in Western Australia In this section, the nature and frequency of offences reported to, or otherwise recorded by, WA police are summarised. There were 218,086 crime reports completed by police during 2006, which contained information relating to 301,160 separate offences 6. Compared with 2005 (271,735), the number of offences increased by 10.8 percent. 2.1 Offences in 2006 Figure 1 shows the distribution of the 301,160 offences reported to police during 2006. Theft, which includes motor vehicle theft, (40.3%), property damage and environmental pollution (18.8%) and burglary (13.3%) are by far the most frequently reported offences reported to police. Acts intended to cause injury, which is comprised mostly of assaults, (7.7%) and illicit drug offences (5.8%) also account for significant proportions of all offences. Further analysis shows that motor vehicle theft accounted for 8,679 offences (2.9%) and nonsexual assault accounted for 23,046 offences (7.7%). Over three quarters (75.6%) of all reported offences were against property (227,792). Possession or use offences were the most common drug offences reported (53.1%). Dealing and trafficking (9.0%), manufacturing or growing (5.4%), and other miscellaneous drug offences (32.5%), including possession of instruments for consuming drugs, made up the remaining drug offences. (Refer to Table 8, page 31, to see all offences reported and the offence groupings used.) Figure 1: Reported crime, by major offence groups, 2006 Homicide and Related Offences 51 Acts Intended to Cause Injury 23,109 Sexual Assault and Related Offences Dangerous or Negligent Acts Abduction and Related Offences Robbery, Extortion and Related Offences 3,347 1,243 412 1,933 Burglary 40,056 Theft and Related Offences 121,433 Deception and Related Offences Illicit Drug Offences Weapons & Explosives Offences 2,282 9,778 17,447 Property Damage & Environmental Pollution 56,525 Public Order Offences Road Traffic & Motor Vehicle Regulatory Offences Justice Procedures, Govt Security/Operations Miscellaneous Offences 6,751 2,223 9,188 5,382 6. Of the 301,160 recorded offences in 2006, 100% were sourced from IMS. In 2005, 100% were sourced from IMS and in 2004, 93.4% were sourced from IMS and 6.6% were sourced from OIS. 2
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 2.2 Trends in Selected Offences Trends in the number of offences reported to police in WA for the ten-year period, 1997 to 2006, are summarised in Table 1 for selected offences. The rate of reported offences against the person increased by 13.6 percent in 2006 and the rate of reported property offences increased by 5.9 percent the first annual increase since 2001. Over the ten-year period rates of reported offences against the person increased by 31.8 percent and property crime rates declined by 18.2 percent. The rate of reported robbery (armed and unarmed) increased by 11.3 percent in 2006, compared with a 25.1 percent decline over ten years. The rate of reported burglary of dwellings increased by 3.0 percent in 2006, despite a decline of 40.8 percent over ten years. Rates of reported motor vehicle theft increased by 2.9 percent in 2006, compared with a ten-year decline of 57.7 percent. The increase in the motor vehicle theft rate was the first since 1998. For offences against the person the rate increase has been most notable in the Kimberley region, although all regions and the Perth metropolitan area experienced increases in reported crime in 2006. Some increases since 2003 and 2004 are attributable to improved recording capabilities of the IMS in relation to domestic assault as well as family and domestic violence legislation reform and ongoing Government and police strategies to encourage the reporting of these offences. However, the results of crime surveys are not affected by these legislative and organisational issues and the most recent of these showed small increases in the prevalence of assault between 1998 and 2005. The increases were larger and statistically significant at the national level, but the prevalence increases for Western Australia were modest and were not statistically significant. Nevertheless, there is survey evidence of greater concentration of victimisation amongst those who became victims over this period, at both national and state levels. In Western Australia the average number of incidents for each victim of assault rose from 2.7 in 1998 to 3.8 in 2005 according to Australian Bureau of Statistics surveys in 1998, 2002 and 2005. Thus, survey results and other information suggest that increases in crimes reported to police in recent years may partially reflect (a) increases in repeated victimisation against the same victim, rather than a spread of victimization through the population and (b) changes in legislation and police procedures. With respect to property crime, a Crime Research Centre bulletin (Morgan, F., & Clare, J., 2007). Household burglary trends in Western Australia (I on Crime No. 1) undertook a detailed analysis of burglary trends in Western Australia and one of its findings was that burglary rates declined much faster in metropolitan Perth than in regional WA between 1993 and 2005. This report is available at the CRC web site, www.crc.law.uwa.edu.au In 2006, 7,635 motor vehicles were reported as stolen, while a further 1,044 attempted vehicle thefts were reported. Details about make, type of vehicle and other characteristics were known in 9,541 cases of reported stolen vehicles. Cars made up 85.0 percent of these, while motor cycles (1.5%) and other or unknown types of vehicles (13.5%) made up the remainder. More than three quarters of cars stolen (76.8%) were eventually recovered, of which over three fifths (62.4%) were recovered within 24 hours, and over four fifths (84.2%) were recovered within one week. The condition of recovered vehicles was recorded in 50.4 percent of cases. Of these 3,695 vehicles, 70.8 percent were recorded as drivable when recovered, while 23.1 percent were not drivable and a further 6.1 percent had been burnt out. 7. See, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Crime and Safety, Australia, Catalogue No. 4509.0 3
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Table 1: Trends in selected offences reported to police, 1997-2006 (a) (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) Population-based rates have been calculated per 100,000 persons, taken from Australian Demographic Statistics, Sep. 2007, ABS Cat. No. 3101.0 The change from ANCO-based offence categories to ASOC-based in 2005 has not significantly affected the time series of offences in this table. Offences against the person include: homicide, assault, sexual assault, non-assaultive sexual offences, other acts intended to cause injury, dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons, abduction, deprivation of liberty, robbery, blackmail and extortion. Offences against property include: burglary, motor vehicle theft and other theft, handling stolen goods, fraud and other deception offences, property damage and environmental offences. Estimates for numbers of registered vehicles are taken from the most recently relevant publication of Motor Vehicle Census, Australia (ABS cat. 9309.0). Figure 2: Offences by rate per 100,000 population, 1997-2006 Offences Against the Person Offences Against Property Robbery 1,600 16,000 160 0 1997 2006 0 1997 2006 0 1997 2006 Burglary (actual and attempted) of Dwelling Motor Vehicle Theft (actual and attempted) 2,500 1,200 0 1997 2006 0 1997 2006 4
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 3 Location of Offences Reported to Police Reported offence information collected by police includes details of the geographic location of each offence, as well as the type of place at which it occurred. In this section are analyses of offence incidence across the regions of Western Australia, as well as within suburbs of the Perth metropolitan area. 3.1 Geographic Location of Offences Tables 2a and 2b provide information on the extent of crime recorded by police in the Perth metropolitan region and in the non-metropolitan regions of WA 8. Of all offences recorded in 2006, 73.7 percent (222,074) were located in Perth. However, the distribution among regions varied for different offences; for example, while 76.1 percent of property offences were recorded in Perth, only 64.3 percent of offences against the person were recorded in Perth. Table 2a: Reported offences against the person and property offences, by region, 2006 (a) (b) Mid = Midlands, Cen = Central, Pil = Pilbara, Kim = Kimberley, SE = South Eastern, LGS = Lower Great Southern, UGS = Upper Great Southern, SW = South West, Unk = unknown. One report may contain multiple offences. 8. The postcode of offence locations have been aggregated into nine regions - one metropolitan region (Perth) and eight non-metropolitan regions (South West, Lower Great Southern, Upper Great Southern, Midlands, South Eastern, Central, Pilbara and Kimberley), which correspond approximately to the ABS statistical divisions of the same name. 5
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Rates of reported crime for all regions are presented in Table 2b. As the table shows, the rate of offences against the person (per 1,000 persons) was highest in the Kimberley (57.8), Pilbara (33.8), South Eastern (31.4) and Central (26.5) regions; and lowest in the South West (11.7). Perth recorded the highest rate of robbery offences (1.2 per 1,000 persons), and the Kimberley region had the highest rate of sex offences (5.9 per 1,000 persons) and the highest rate of property offences (159.1 per 1,000 persons). Differing rates of specific property offences, such as residential and commercial burglary and motor vehicle theft, are also presented in the table. Figures 3a and 3b illustrate reported offences in the Perth metropolitan region, compared with the rest of the state, offences are grouped by property, against the person and other. Figure 3a: Total offences reported in Perth metropolitan region Figure 3b: Total offences reported in non-metropolitan regions Other 29,342 Against The Person 19,364 Other 13,854 Against The Person 10,667 Property 173,368 Property 54,275 Table 2b: Rates of offences against the person and property offences, by region, 2006 (a)(b) (a) Rates are per 1,000 persons (b) Population estimates are from ABS Census 2006. (c) Mid = Midlands, Cen = Central, Pil = Pilbara, Kim = Kimberley, SE = South Eastern, LGS = Lower Great Southern, UGS = Upper Great Southern, SW = South West, Unk = unknown. (d) Rates are per 1,000 dwellings. Estimates for numbers of dwellings in the regions are taken from the 2006 Census. (e) Rates for burglary of commercial premises may be better expressed by number of commercial buildings, but is here rated by number of persons because numbers of commercial premises are not available. 6
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 3.2 Place of Offence Police record quite specific information about the type of place at which offences occur. The following analyses group this information into four major categories: dwellings, shops, non-residential (excluding shops) and other types of places. These categories comprises the following specific types of place. Dwelling: house, flat, caravan, hotel or motel room, boarding house, residential institution. Shop: shopping centre, pharmacy, service station. Non-residential: school, hotel, tavern, nightclub, restaurant, betting place, factory, hospital, office, toilet block, bank, post office, church. Other: car park, park or oval, public transport, street or footpath, vacant- or bushland, agricultural land, beach, river- or lake-side. Figure 4a shows the total number of offences in 2006, broken down by these four major place-types. Figures 4b and 4c illustrate the place-type for offences against the person and property offences, respectively. Figure 4a: Total reported crime, by place of offence, 2006 69,851 Other 49,687 Non- Residential 140,865 Dwelling 37,432 Shop Figure 4b: Reported offences against the person, by place of offence, 2006 Figure 4c: Reported property offences, by place of offence, 2006 Other 9,023 Other 46,615 Nonresidential 4,064 Shop 1,579 Dwelling 14,334 Nonresidential 41,229 Shop 34,406 Dwelling 105,536 7
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Excluding 3,325 offences with unknown place-type, the largest number of offences (47.3%) occurred in dwellings. About one in eight (12.6%) reported offences occurred in shops and the remainder in nonresidential premises (16.7%) and other places (23.5%). As one would expect, the place of offence varies considerably by the nature of the offence. For example, dwellings accounted for the place of offence in 43.6 percent of theft offences, 75.1 percent of sexual offences and 67.7 percent of burglary offences; but only 20.6 percent of deception offences and 15.3 percent of robbery and extortion offences. See Table 9, page 33, for a cross-tabulation of place-type and offence groups. 3.3 Mapping of recorded offences, Perth metropolitan area Coloured maps showing the incidence of crimes reported to police in Perth suburbs 9 have been produced (see Maps 1 through 10) 10. Maps of this nature give an indication of where crimes are more concentrated or less concentrated over the entire area, and they also show a picture of the relative risks of victimisation that directly affect individuals or households. Some maps display the actual number of reported crimes within suburbs, while others display rates of crime per thousand persons living in the suburb these account for differences in population density, which is generally a more reliable indicator of the risk of victimisation. For burglary of dwellings, however, the rate is given per thousand dwellings, as this is a more appropriate indicator of risk 11. Maps of this nature do not reveal reasons for the spatial variations in crime. The distribution of crime is affected by many factors, such as the level of local (suburban) variations in commercial activity, which is associated with many stealing, property damage and burglary offences. Furthermore, variations in crime and location may also arise because of crime prevention programs and the effect of insurance coverage on reporting behaviour. Problems involved in the interpretation of crime incidence maps are discussed in more detail in the 1990 Statistical Report (pp 14-16). It is stressed that crime report maps such as these, although useful and informative, do not by themselves provide a precise picture of crime in the unit areas, nor do they give a complete assessment of comparative risks between these areas or over the larger area. Such a picture should be created by a more detailed analysis that considers the variations in other relevant factors affecting crime such as demographic, social, economic and geographic factors. 9. Suburbs in these maps are State Suburbs (SSCs), which are created by aggregating whole ABS Census Collection Districts (CDs) falling within officially gazetted suburbs. There are 308 suburbs included in these maps. 10. To obtain the name of a suburb on a map, find the suburb on the Suburb Reference Codes Map (immediately after the coloured maps), and then look up its numerical code in the Suburb Reference Codes and Incidence Ranks for Selected Offences table. 11. Rates of reported crime are based on small area 2006 Census suburb population and dwellings estimates. 8
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 How to use maps and reference tables The maps are intended to highlight how the incidence of crime is distributed over the Perth metropolitan area, with each map dealing with a particular offence or offence category. For each map, each suburb has been allocated into one of five groups or ranks, with each rank assigned a different colour and representing a range of incidence of that offence type within that suburb 12. Rank 1 comprises the group of suburbs with the highest incidence of crime, and rank 5 comprises those with the lowest 13. For example, in map 4 the west coastal suburb of Scarborough is coloured orange, which is rank 3 and which (from the Incidents legend on the map) includes all suburbs with a burglary rate of between 24 and 36 burglaries per 1000 dwellings in the year. 3.4 Maps of recorded offences, Perth metropolitan area Map 1 Total offences recorded... 10 Map 2 Total offences recorded per 1000 persons... 11 Map 3 Recorded burglaries of dwellings... 12 Map 4 Recorded burglaries of dwellings per 1000 households... 13 Map 5 Recorded offences against the person... 14 Map 6 Recorded offences against the person per 1000 persons... 15 Map 7 Recorded thefts of motor vehicles... 16 Map 8 Recorded offences on commercial premises... 17 Map 9 Recorded robberies... 18 Map 10 Recorded drug offences... 19 12. Be mindful that the maps do not indicate that a suburb had a high or low incidence of crime; what constitutes high or low may be different for different cities and circumstances. Instead, they indicate that suburbs had a higher or lower incidence of crime than other suburbs in that year. 13. The number of suburbs within each rank is determined by the following percentiles: rank 1 (red) is the top ten percent of suburbs (having the highest crime incidence), rank 2 (pink) is the next twenty percent, rank 3 (orange) is the next forty percent, rank 4 (yellow) is the next twenty percent and rank 5 (cream) is the bottom ten percent (having the lowest crime incidence). 9
ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 1: TOTAL OFFENCES RECORDED Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING PERTH GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT STIRLING HWY CANNING HWY KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY CANNING RD ROE HWY TONKIN HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT RANFORD RD BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ROCKINGHAM RD ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 INCIDENTS 1676 or more (1) 753 to 1676 (2) 231 to 753 (3) 73 to 231 (4) 0 to 73 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidence rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
ROCKINGHAM RD ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 2: TOTAL OFFENCES RECORDED PER 1,000 PERSONS Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING PERTH GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT CANNING RD STIRLING HWY CANNING HWY KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD ROE HWY TONKIN HWY BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE RANFORD RD NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD INCIDENTS (per 1,000 persons) ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 297 or more (1) 172 to 297 (2) 82 to 172 (3) 54 to 82 (4) 0 to 54 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidence rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
ROCKINGHAM RD ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 3: RECORDED BURGLARIES OF DWELLINGS Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING STIRLING HWY PERTH CANNING HWY GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD ROE HWY CANNING RD TONKIN HWY BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE RANFORD RD NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 INCIDENTS 162 or more (1) 85 to 162 (2) 24 to 85 (3) 4 to 24 (4) 0 to 4 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidents rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
ROCKINGHAM RD ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 4: RECORDED BURGLARIES OF DWELLINGS PER 1,000 HOUSEHOLDS Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING PERTH GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT CANNING RD STIRLING HWY CANNING HWY KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD ROE HWY TONKIN HWY BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE RANFORD RD NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD INCIDENTS (per 1,000 h'holds) ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 82 or more (1) 46 to 82 (2) 24 to 46 (3) 13 to 24 (4) 0 to 13 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidence rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
ROCKINGHAM RD ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 5: RECORDED OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING PERTH GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT CANNING RD STIRLING HWY CANNING HWY KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD ROE HWY TONKIN HWY BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE RANFORD RD NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 INCIDENTS 142 or more (1) 65 to 142 (2) 16 to 65 (3) 3 to 16 (4) 0 to 3 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidence rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
ROCKINGHAM RD ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 6: RECORDED OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON PER 1,000 PERSONS Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING PERTH GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT CANNING RD STIRLING HWY CANNING HWY KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD ROE HWY TONKIN HWY BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE RANFORD RD NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD INCIDENTS (per 1,000 persons) ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 28 or more (1) 14 to 28 (2) 5 to 14 (3) 2 to 5 (4) 0 to 2 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidence rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
ROCKINGHAM RD ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 7: RECORDED THEFTS OF MOTOR VEHICLES Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING STIRLING HWY PERTH CANNING HWY GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD ROE HWY CANNING RD TONKIN HWY BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE RANFORD RD NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 INCIDENTS 54 or more (1) 25 to 54 (2) 8 to 25 (3) 1 to 8 (4) 0 to 1 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidence rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
ROCKINGHAM RD ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 8: RECORDED OFFENCES ON COMMERCIAL PREMISES Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING PERTH GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT CANNING RD STIRLING HWY CANNING HWY KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD ROE HWY TONKIN HWY BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE RANFORD RD NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 INCIDENTS 444 or more (1) 122 to 444 (2) 13 to 122 (3) 1 to 13 (4) 0 to 1 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidence rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
ROCKINGHAM RD ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 9: RECORDED ROBBERIES Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING STIRLING HWY PERTH CANNING HWY GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD ROE HWY CANNING RD TONKIN HWY BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE RANFORD RD NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 INCIDENTS 15 or more (1) 6 to 15 (2) 2 to 6 (3) 1 to 1 (4) 0 to 0 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidence rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
ROCKINGHAM RD ALEXANDER DR QUINNS ROCKS MAP 10: RECORDED DRUG OFFENCES Perth metropolitan area, 2006 NEAVES RD JOONDALUP MARMION AVE OCEAN REEF RD ELLENBROOK WANGARA GNANGARA RD HILLARYS MITCHELL FWY BALGA REID HWY WEST SWAN RD GT NORTHERN HWY TOODYAY RD STONEVILLE RD MORLEY SCARBOROUGH WANNEROO RD MIDLAND GT EASTERN HWY WEMBLEY GUILDFORD RD MUNDARING PERTH GT EASTERN HWY PERTH AIRPORT CANNING RD STIRLING HWY CANNING HWY KEWDALE WELSHPOOL RD ROE HWY TONKIN HWY BOORAGOON LEACH HWY ALBANY HWY PICKERING BROOK FREMANTLE SOUTH ST CANNING VALE RANFORD RD NORTH LAKE RD KWINANA FWY JANDAKOT BROOKTON HWY ARMADALE ARMADALE RD ALBANY HWY THOMAS RD ROCKINGHAM PATTERSON RD ENNIS AVE 0 4 Scale (km) 8 INCIDENTS 91 or more (1) 45 to 91 (2) 9 to 45 (3) 2 to 9 (4) 0 to 2 (5) Numerals in parentheses indicate incidence rank. Based on ABS Census CD-derived suburb boundaries.
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Suburb Reference Codes Map 20
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Suburb Reference Codes and Incidence Ranks for Selected Offences The table below shows a list of the suburbs that are included in the maps. The reference codes in the second column in this table are those shown in the Suburb Reference Codes map. The numbers in the third, fourth and fifth columns are the ranks that each suburb falls into for burglary (map 4), vehicle theft (map 7) and offences against the person (map 6), respectively; they are not the actual incidence counts or rates. Rank 1 includes those suburbs with the highest incidence, rank 5 includes those with the lowest incidence. 21
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Suburb Reference Codes and Incidence Ranks for Selected Offences 22
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Suburb Reference Codes and Incidence Ranks for Selected Offences 23
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 4 Offences Against the Person There were 30,095 offences against the person arising from a total of 24,148 separate reports in 2006. Of these reports, 86.2 percent were cleared by police (that is, cleared by charge or by other means, including the unfounding of the alleged offence). Offences against the person include: homicide, assault, sexual assault, non-assaultive sexual offences, other acts intended to cause injury, dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons, abduction, deprivation of liberty, robbery, blackmail and extortion. 4.1 Victim Characteristics WA police record the age, Indigenous status and sex of victims of offences against the person. Males accounted for 52.5 percent of such offences reported to the police (where victim sex is known). A breakdown of offences against the person by place of offence and sex of victim is summarised in Table 3. As the table shows, both men and women were more likely to be victimised in a dwelling than in other types of places, but women were far more likely than men to be victimised at a dwelling. More specific details of offences against the person for sex of the victim and place of offence are presented in Table 10, page 34. Table 3: Recorded offences against the person, by sex of victim and place, 2006 (a) There were 1095 cases of unknown place type. A breakdown of the sex of the victim for different types of offences against the person is shown in Figure 5. For offences where victim sex was known, males were victims in 72.7 percent of robberies or extortions and 56.4 percent of assaults reported to police, whereas females were victims in 83.7 percent of sex offences reported to police. Note that assault accounts for 72.5 percent of all offences against the person. Figure 6 shows the distribution of victim age for all offences against the person. After adjusting for missing age data, 44.1 percent of victims were under 25 years of age and 14.3 percent were older than 44 years of age. More details of victim sex and age for offences against the person are presented in Table 11, page 35. 24
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Figure 5: Recorded offences against the person, by sex of victim, 2006 (a) 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 9,508 12,307 Female Male 4,000 2,000 0 12 35 2,671 522 Homicide Assault Sex Offences Robbery & Extortion 1,176 442 304 273 Other (a) 2845 cases of unknown sex are excluded. Figure 6: Reported offences against the person, by age of victim, 2006 7000 6000 5000 5,568 6,295 6,448 4,737 4000 3000 3,195 2,487 2000 1000 0 987 378 Unk. <18 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ Age group (years) The level of victimisation for Indigenous persons can be estimated from offences where the Indigenous status 14 of the victim was recorded. After excluding 13,813 offences against the person with unknown Indigenous status (45.9%) 15, Indigenous people accounted for 28.1 percent of victims of offences against the person in 2006. The rates of victimisation 16 (where Indigenous status was recorded) are estimated to be 6,323.1 per 100,000 persons for Indigenous people, and 589.6 per 100,000 for non-indigenous people 17. Thus, based on these estimates, Indigenous people were over ten times more likely to be victims of violence than non-indigenous people in 2006 (where Indigenous status was known). It should be noted that 67.4 percent of Indigenous victims in 2006 were female, compared with 45.0 percent of non-indigenous victims who were female (excluding cases of unknown victim sex). 14. Indigenous status is derived from a field for ethnic appearance in the WA Police Service information systems. The field is completed on the basis of the attending police officer's subjective assessment of the person's appearance, and is used for operational purposes only. Care should be taken in the interpretation of these statistics because it is possible that a person attributed to a particular group does not belong to that group. 15. Since the introduction of IMS in late 2002, this Indigenous status indicator has been poorly recorded. In 2005, 73.1% of offences against the person did not have Indigenous status recorded. In previous years, the percentages of offences against the person with unknown Indigenous status were: 76.8% in 2004, 36.2% in 2003 and 3.4% in 2002. 16. Rates are based on ABS estimated resident population and on Experimental Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, low series (ABS cat. no. 3238.0). 17. Because there are many cases of unknown Indigenous status, these rates should be considered as underestimates. The reliability of these estimates for rate of victimisation may be dependent on whether or not there was a significant association between the Indigenous status of the victim and whether or not the Indigenous status was recorded. Victimisation estimates based on reported crime is also highly dependent on the level of reporting to the police by victims of crime. 25
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 4.2 Homicide in Western Australia As shown in Table 6, page 28, Western Australia s homicide rate (excluding driving causing death) of 2.3 per 100,000 persons was exceeded by those of the Northern Territory (10.0), South Australia (3.4), Queensland (3.3), Tasmania (2.7) and New South Wales (2.6); but was higher than those of Victoria (2.1) and the ACT (0.9). Comparatively, the 2006 WA homicide rate was lower than the national rate of 2.7. Note, however, that as the incidence of homicide is low, considerable fluctuations may occur in the rates from year to year 18. Murder and homicide trends in Western Australia for the period from 1992 to 2006 are presented in Table 4. Table 4: Murder and homicide trends in Western Australia, 1992-2006 (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) The offence of driving causing death. Includes murder and manslaughter, but excludes attempted murder and driving causing death. Includes murder, attempted murder and manslaughter, but excludes driving causing death. The figures for driving causing death for the years 2003 to 2006 are over-estimates, owing to coding issues in IMS, which could not distinguish between driving causing death and driving causing grievous bodily harm. Population-based rates have been calculated per 100,000 persons, taken from Australian 18. It should be noted that the number of reported murders is just that - many reported murders are, upon investigation by police or inquiry by the Coroner, found not to be murder, but suicide or death by misadventure, for example. 26
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 A breakdown of the sex of homicide victims (excluding driving causing death victims) is provided in Table 5 for the period 1992 to 2006. As the table shows, males accounted for three fifths (60.8%) of all homicide victims between 1992 and 2006. In 2006 males were the victims in 66.7 percent of murders, 90.0 percent of attempted murders and 81.8 percent of all manslaughter cases. The age of the victim was known in 847 of 879 homicide cases between 1992 and 2006. Of these, juveniles comprised 14.2 percent (54 murder victims, 37 victims of attempted murder and 29 victims of manslaughter). Table 5: Homicides, by sex of victim, 1992-2006 (a) Cases of unknown sex are excluded. 27
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 5 National Crime Statistics National crime statistics based on crimes recorded by police in 2006 were published by the ABS for selected offences in Recorded Crime Victims, Australia 2006. Table 6 shows numbers and rates for each state and territory for various offence categories. Table 6: National Crime Statistics 2006 (a)(b) na Not available np Not published, owing to differences in recording across states and territories. See Differences in Recorded Crime Statistics, ABS, June 2005. (a) Counts are sourced from Recorded Crime Victims, Australia 2006, ABS Cat. No. 4510.0. (b) ABS did not publish state-based rates. Rates have been calculated per 100,000 persons, taken from Australian Demographic Statistics, Sep. 2007, ABS Cat. No. 3101.0. (c) Excludes driving causing death. 28
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Table 7 shows the Western Australian and Australian rates of recorded crime for each offence category, and also shows which states or territories had the highest and lowest rates. In comparison to national rates, Western Australia s rate was lower than the Australian rate for homicide and kidnapping/abduction, but higher for robbery, unlawful entry, motor vehicle theft and other theft. The Northern Territory had the highest rate for homicide, New South Wales had the highest rates for kidnapping/abduction and robbery, ACT had the highest rate for motor vehicle theft, while Western Australia had the highest rates for unlawful entry and other theft. Table 7: Summary 2006 National Crime Statistics: comparison of WA and Australia np na (a) Not published, owing to differences in recording across states and territories. Not available, due to missing/lack of data Homicide excludes driving causing death. As a result of issues of national comparability arising from the Differences in Recorded Crime Statistics (DiRCS) project, statistics for assault and sexual assault were not published in Recorded Crime Victims, Australia 2006. Further, this publication does not include population-based crime rates for inter-jurisdictional comparisons of crime victimisation; instead, it uses indexes of intra-jurisdictional change. However, for continuity with previous releases of Crime and Justice Statistics for Western Australia, we have provided rates in Tables 6 and 7, except for assault and sexual assault. As a consequence of the differences in classification and counting rules, national estimates produced by the ABS are not exactly comparable to those published elsewhere in this Report 19. Generally, national statistics will over-count victims compared with our rules, which count each victim and each offence. The national rule counts the most serious offence for each victim within a distinct criminal incident for every different national offence category (see page 115, ABS Recorded Crime Victims, Australia 1999, Cat. No. 4510.0). Our counting methods distinguish between prevalence (number of distinct victims) and incidence (number of offences), while the national method counts multiple incidents of victimisation (if they occur across offence classifications) as multiple victimisations. Thus, the victim of a kidnap, sexual assault and murder will be counted by us as one victim and three offences, while the national rule will, in effect, count three victims 20. 19. National counting rules are complex and for some offences they differ from individual state classification and counting practices. For example, national counting rules count victims of sexual assault, whereas in WA the total number of separate sexual assault offences are counted for each victim who was assaulted. Further, national counting rules regarding kidnapping and abduction exclude the more common offence of deprivation of liberty, which is included in the WA classification. Our classification of burglary includes carports, driveways and yards, which are excluded in the national definition. 20. This is why counts are not summed across offence categories in the national counting rules. 29
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Supplementary Tables - Reported Offences Table 8 Offences reported to police, by offence groups... 31 Table 9 Reported offences, by place of offence... 33 Table 10 Reported offences against the person, by sex of victim and place of offence... 34 Table 11 Reported offences against the person, by age group and sex of victim... 35 30
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Table 8: Offences reported to police, by offence group 31
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Table 8: (continued) 32
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Table 9: Reported offence, by place of offence 33
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Table 10: Reported offences against the person, by sex of victim and place of offence 34
Crimes Reported to Police - 2006 Table 1.4: Reported offences against the person, by age-group and sex of victim Female Male Unk Total <18 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ <18 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ n % Murder 4 1-3 - - - 2 1 4 6 2-1 2 26 0.1 Attempted Murder - - - 1 - - - 2 2 3 1 1 - - 1 11 0.0 Manslaughter 2 - - - - - - 1 1 4 2-1 - 1 12 0.0 Driving Causing Death - - - - - 1 - - 1 - - - - - - 2 0.0 Aggravated Assault 216 534 675 432 182 47 9 411 1,063 990 668 390 166 56 411 6,250 20.8 Non-Aggravated Assault 1,077 1,764 2,116 1,427 670 173 66 1,491 1,656 1,885 1,707 1,013 460 150 1,141 16,796 55.8 Acts Intended to Cause Injury, nec 2 25 12 5-2 2-3 4 3 - - - 5 63 0.2 Aggravated Sexual Assault 1,351 321 203 96 40 7 17 309 44 30 11 2 2-122 2,555 8.5 Non-Aggravated Sexual Assault 98 199 100 76 27 6 8 14 21 7 4 3 1-19 583 1.9 Non-Assaultive Sexual Offences Against a Child 81 7 3 8 - - - 23 2 29 16 - - - 39 208 0.7 Non-Assaultive Sexual Offences, nec - - - - - - - - 1 - - - - - - 1 0.0 Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs - - - - - 1 - - 1-1 - - - 60 63 0.2 Dangerous or Negligent Driving 10 8 7 6 4 7 2 7 19 27 22 17 19-1,000 1,155 3.8 Neglect of Person Under Care 1 - - - - - - 5-2 - - - - 8 16 0.1 Abduction and Kidnapping 11 4 4 - - - - 19 2 1-1 - - 2 44 0.1 Deprivation of Liberty/False Imprisonment 47 84 56 35 5 6 3 24 41 20 14 7 5 1 20 368 1.2 Aggravated Robbery 32 73 38 45 23 13 24 244 312 132 77 58 39 18 281 1,409 4.7 Non-Aggravated Robbery 13 31 36 29 16 9 4 66 49 38 25 16 9-75 416 1.4 Blackmail and Extortion 1 16 12 6 2 7 1 4 9 10 11 8 6 7 8 108 0.4 Total 2,946 3,067 3,262 2,169 969 279 136 2,622 3,228 3,186 2,568 1,518 708 233 3,195 30,086 100 Table 11: Reported offences against the person, by age-group and sex of victim 35
Appendix A Appendix A Caveats on Police Data The following caveats have been placed upon the release and use of police data in this Report: 1. The Data/Information was supplied courtesy of the WA Police Service and was sourced from the Service s Offence Information System, Frontline Incident Management System, BriefCase System, Juvenile Cautioning System, Lock-up Admission System and Custodial System. 2. The Data/Information is provisional and may be subject to revision. Offence Data 3. Reported offences are selected offences reported to or becoming known to police, and resulting in the submission of an offence/incident report in the Offence Information System/Frontline Incident Management System. These exclude offences against public order, such as disorderly conduct and offences against the Firearms Act, Liquor Licensing Act and a number of other offences against the statute laws of this State and the Commonwealth. 4. The number of reported offences for a period comprises all offences reported during that period and may include offences committed during earlier periods. Therefore the reporting of historical offences may inflate the number of reported offences for a given period. 5. Offence classifications may alter between or during periods due to changes in legislation, administrative recording practices and system coding. Similarly, locality boundaries may also change. Accordingly, time series may be broken over time. 6. From late 2002, a number of factors have affected victim reporting and police recording of offences. For example: The offence category of manslaughter includes some ofences resulting from driving incidents, which have previously been included in the category of driving causing death. Recording issues associated with the offence category of assault police officer have resulted in a number of these offences being recorded in the categories of aggravated assault and non aggravated assault. Recording issues and reporting practices by some Government agencies, local government authorities and private enterprise associated with certain offence categories, such as fraud and graffiti, have had an impact on the number of reported offences. Definitional, coding and processing changes associated with the introduction of the Frontline Incident Management System have had an impact on some data. 36
Appendix A Accordingly, caution should be exercised when interpreting and using offence statistics from late 2002 and later data, especially when comparing those statistics with earlier periods. For example, any variation may not necessarily reflect an actual increase or decrease in the incidence of an offence type (or in total offence numbers), but rather variations resulting from reporting and recording changes. Clearance Data 7. An offence is cleared (clearance) where an offender is apprehended or processed (such as by arrest, summons, Juvenile Justice Team referral, juvenile caution, drug caution or infringement) or where, for some substantial reason, police investigations cannot be continued. These reasons include: the offender has died; the offender is in another jurisdiction and extradition is not desired or available; insufficient evidence exists to proceed against a suspect; there is a statute bar to proceedings where an offender is under age or claims diplomatic immunity; admittance to a psychiatric facility; false or mistaken reports; withdrawn complaint; civil action recommended. 8. The number of offences cleared for a period comprises all offences for which the clearance was recorded during that period. Due to the nature and length of investigations, the number of offences cleared during a period may include offences reported prior to that period. Indigenous Status 9. Aboriginality and indigenous status data is derived from the WA Police Service Identity Code field for Ethnic Appearance. This field is completed on the basis of the attending police officer s subjective assessment of the person s appearance, and is recorded for operational purposes only. Care should be exercised in the interpretation of these statistics, as a subjective assessment means it is possible that a person attributed to a particular group may not belong to that group. Processed Persons 10. Processed Persons data refers to numbers of offences for which a person has been processed; i.e. arrested, summonsed, formally cautioned or referred to a Juvenile Justice Team program. It does not represent total clearances as clearance figures include offenders subject to statue bar, diplomatic immunity and other related processes. The processed persons data does not necessarily provide the number of offences as more than one offender could be processed for a single offence. Accordingly, the data cannot be used to calculate reported offence numbers or clearance rates. Caution should be exercised in it application. Time Series 11. Time series data may be affected by changes in legislation, coding practices and locality boundaries. 37