Youth crime down as Victoria's crime rate continues to fall

Youth crime has dropped in Victoria as the state's record crime rate continues to fall, new figures show.

The latest crime data, released today, reveals that in the past year to June, the state's crime rate dropped by 3.8 per cent.

Youth offending decreased by 8.1 per cent in that time.

While police say crime in Victoria remains "unacceptably high" at more than 13 per cent higher than three years ago, several major crimes decreased.

Serious and violent crimes dropped by 4 per cent, home invasions fell by 27 per cent, and carjackings decreased by 25 per cent.

Crime Statistics Agency Chief Statistician Fiona Dowsley told 774 ABC Melbourne that a 20 per cent drop in burglaries and break-ins was "really significant", but that the cause of the fall was difficult to determine.

"Potentially there's been a bit of crime prevention that's influencing that. We certainly have quite a few people who are being remanded for those offences, so that can have a temporary effect," she said.

"These things do have a certain amount of ebb and flow. We have seen a very big increase and we're now seeing a big decrease back down."

Robberies dropped 22 per cent and burglaries by almost 20 per cent.

Police say organised crime, repeat offenders, mental health and drugs are the main drivers of crime, with trafficking and dealing drugs such as cocaine, meth, ecstasy and prescription drugs spiking by 18.5 per cent.

Theft also dropped, with car theft falling by 5 per cent and theft from a motor vehicle by 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, retail theft climbed by almost 3 per cent.

Victoria Police still facing retention crisis

Family violence offending decreased by 3 per cent across metropolitan Melbourne and Victoria's regions, with police attributing the fall to a record 16,500 family violence-related arrests.

Regional Operations Deputy Commissioner Bob Hill said the drop in the state's crime rate was promising, but more work still needed to be done to make Victorians feel safe.

"Our work is far from over," he said.

"We remain firmly committed to reducing harm across the community and will continue striving not only to meet our targets, but to exceed them.

"Victoria Police will continue to focus on prevention where we can, enforcement where we must, and maintaining the visible, proactive policing presence that communities in this state rightly expect and deserve."

Figures also showed Victoria Police is still grappling with a major retention crisis, with 1340 unfilled roles.

That figure follows Premier Ben Carroll's pledge earlier this week to recruit 1500 extra police to crack down on crime in Victoria.

The latest crime data comes after an auditor-general report this week found Victoria's $40 million flagship initiative to stop youth crime had failed to show it had driven down youth offending.

Former premier Daniel Andrews launched the program in 2016 under the premise it was "proven to help reduce offending", but the report said the Department of Justice and Community Safety had no evidence to prove it.

The review also found more than two thirds of the youths involved went on to re-offend within six months of starting the program.

Meanwhile, a report published today by Victoria's Sentencing Advisory Council found prison terms for major crimes such as murder rape and were getting longer.

Following the introduction of standard terms for such crimes in 2018, the median sentence for murder rose from 21 to 24 years, rape from six to seven years and 11 years, up from seven years, for trafficking offences.