February 6, 2020
The crime rate in Queensland remained steady during 2018-19, figures released on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.
There were 89,501 offenders proceeded against by police in Queensland in 2018-19, less than a 1 per cent drop in the number of offenders since 2017-18.
The number of offenders per 100,000 people was 2035, down 55.
About a quarter (26 per cent) of offenders had a principal offence that was related to illegal drugs. Of these, 68 per cent were for possession and/or use.
Public order offences dropped by 8 per cent to reach the lowest levels (13,925 offenders) since statistics began being kept in this dataset in 2008-09.
The number of offenders with a principal offence of robbery/extortion rose by 12 per cent, to its highest level (1115 offenders) 2008-09.
The male offender rate was almost three times the female offender rate with 3049 male offenders per 100,000 males and 1053 female offenders per 100,000 females; 74 per cent of offenders were male, compared with 76 per cent nationally.
One-in-four male offenders (25 per cent) and female offenders (28 per cent) had a principal offence that was drug-related.
There were 11,699 youth offenders, down 169 on the previous 12 months.
This was the lowest rate since the beginning of the time series (2259 youth offenders per 100,000).
Almost one-in-five youth offenders (19 per cent) had a principal offence of theft.
There were 163,362 police proceedings, 82 per cent of which were court actions.
A quarter (25 per cent) of court actions were for a drug-related principal offence.
