Police recorded crime trends in Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) has released a research paper entitled "Police-recorded crime trends in Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic". The paper examines trends in criminal offences and family violence incidents to 30 June 2020, focusing on comparing the period from 1 April 2020 to 30 June 2020 with the same period in 2019.This paper aims to examine whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic, associated behaviour changes and implemented restrictions impacted on crime in Victoria. It examines whether there were changes in the volume, nature or location of offending recorded by police following the introduction of restrictions in late March 2020 and provides an overview of offences recorded for breaching restrictions introduced to address COVID-19.