There were a total of 809,411 incidents of malicious damage to property reported to police between January 2001 and December 2008. 72,169 or 9% of these were incidents of graffiti.
The table below shows the number of graffiti related malicious damage to property incidents per annum from 2001 to 2008. There were 7,060 incidents in 2001 and 14,001 incidents in 2008. The average annual number of incidents over this period was 9,021.
The percentage of malicious damage incidents related to graffiti increased from 7.3% in 2001 to 12.8% in 2008, a 5.5 percentage point increase.
The number of reported graffiti incidents continued to rise in 2006 to 10,951. Some caution needs to be exercised when interpreting recorded crime figures as they can be affected by situational factors. For example, an active anti-graffiti campaign was undertaken in Newcastle during 2004/2005, which resulted in an increased number of graffiti incidents being recorded by the Newcastle police.
Malicious damage graffiti figures will be affected by the introduction of The Graffiti Control Act 2008 as police begin to charge graffiti vandals under this act they will be less likely to charge offenders under The Crimes Act 1900 with malicious damage – graffiti.
The number of incidents where a person of interest (POI) was proceeded against for graffiti vandalism increased from 1,184 in 2005 to 1,913 in 2008.
The vast majority of graffiti offenders proceeded against by police were young males. In 2008, 1,250 males under the age of 18 were proceeded against, representing 65% of the total. 1,672 or 87% of graffiti offenders proceeded against were male. 1,459 or 76% of offenders were under the age of 18.
There is some monthly variation in the number of graffiti incidents recorded by police. October experienced the highest average number of incidents per month with 895 incidents. February experienced the lowest average with 594 incidents.
The premises type most often reported in relation to graffiti vandalism were educational premises. This was followed by residential, business/commercial and outdoor/public places. It is important to consider that reporting requirements, for insurance purposes for example, may result in higher graffiti reporting rates in relation to certain premises types.
These graphs and statistics were sourced directly from the following webpage;
http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/cpd/ll_graffiti.nsf/pages/graffiti_statistics
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