The data shows the total number of criminal incidents in Ararat for the year ending in September 2021 to have increased 13.9 per cent from the same time in 2020 - from 996 incidents in 2020 to 1134 in 2021.

There were 9446.6 incidents per 100,000 population in Ararat compared to the state average of 5358.1.

Of the criminal incidents, 55.1 per cent resulted in charges being laid, 22 per cent resulted in no charges being laid, and 22.8 per cent remained unsolved.

Criminal damage was the most popular offence, with 136 incidents in 2021 compared to 104 incidents in the previous year.

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The second most common offence, breach bail conditions, also saw an increase, from 87 incidents in 2021 as compared to 45 the previous year.

Breach family violence order, theft and drug possession were the third, fourth and fifth most common offences in Ararat respectively.

There were 496,260 criminal offences recorded state-wide for the 12 months up to September 2021, representing a decrease of 10 per cent, or 55,128 offences from the previous year.

Breaches of court orders rose by 3.1 per cent across Victoria, largely led by breaches of family violence orders, which rose by 7.8 per cent.

Other criminal offences including stalking, harassment and threatening behaviour also rose, largely driven by online offending.

An increase in assaults was also tied to family violence offending with more than half of all assaults being family violence related, while the rise in sexual offences was most heavily driven by an increase in sexual offences against children.

This increase is mostly due to the Joint Anti Child Exploitation Taskforce identifying a number of instances of non-contact Child Exploitation Material being sourced by offenders online.

However, the year ending in September also saw a decrease in other forms of crime, such as burglaries, robberies and thefts.

For more information, visit: https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/.

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