Australian Bureau of Statistics

NT’s Indigenous people more likely to be victims of crime than non-Indigenous people

Victor P Taffa

Indigenous people were more likely than non-Indigenous people to be victims of assault and homicide but less likely to be victims of robbery in the NT, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Indigenous people comprised just under one-third (30%) of the NT’s population but were the victims of over half (59%) of all assaults, half (50%) of all sexual assaults and nearly two-thirds (65%) of all homicide and related offences in 2008.

In contrast, 7% of NT’s robbery victims were Indigenous.

Other highlights from this publication include:

• Property offences fell in Palmerston (down 15%), Darwin (down 8%) and Tennant Creek (down 2%) but rose in Katherine (up 13%), Nhulunbuy (up 10%) and Alice Springs (up 7%) over the year to 30 September 2009.

• More than one-third (41%) of the NT’s Vocational Education and Training clients were Indigenous in 2008. Bathurst-Melville had the highest proportion of Indigenous clients (95%), followed by Daly (91%), while Litchfield Shire and Palmerston-East Arm had the lowest at 9% and 16% respectively.

• Unemployment was highest in Bathurst-Melville at 12.1%, followed by Daly with 11.4%, while Darwin City and Palmerston-East Arm had the lowest (at 1.8% and 1.9%) for the March 2009 quarter.