More Victorians breaching bail as law change looms

More Victorians are breaching bail conditions as thefts rise in the state, the latest crime statistics show.

The Crime Statistics Agency recorded a marked increase in breach of bail offences and acquisitive crimes such as thefts in the year ending December 2022.

However, the rate of overall recorded offences remained stable, rising 0.5 per cent to about 7333 per every 100,000 Victorians.

The number of offences increased by 1.2 per cent to about 483,440.

Alleged offender incidents rose by seven per cent to almost 163,000 in 2022 and offender incidents with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status increased by 14.4 per cent to more than 14,500 in the 12-month period. 

Offences for breaches of orders jumped by almost 6000 compared with 2021, to about 74,000.

That represented a stark increase on the about 29,400 breach of order offences recorded in 2013 and almost 46,800 in 2014.

The number of people failing to answer bail in 2022 increased by more than 3300 compared with 2021 to almost 8200, although offences were higher between 2013 and 2016.

Offences for contravening bail conditions relating to conduct jumped by about 1300 since 2021, while the number of offences for committing a crime while on bail dropped by 40 to 337.

The Andrews government this month unveiled plans to strip back the state's tough bail laws after 2018 reforms led to rising unsentenced prisoner numbers, particularly among Indigenous people and women.

The contentious reverse-onus test for bail would not apply to low-level offenders under the proposed reforms and the unacceptable risk test would be refined so the potential for minor reoffending could not be used to refuse bail. 

The number of thefts in 2022 jumped by almost 4400 since 2021 to about 148,000, although thefts have been higher in recent years. 

The number of overall criminal incidents increased by 0.4 per cent in 2022 to fewer than 350,000 and the rate of incidents dropped slightly - by 0.3 per cent - to about 5300 per every 100,000 Victorians.

That represented the lowest rate since 2005, the statistics agency said. 

Victim reports increased by about 5000 to more than 270,500 in the year ending December 2022. 

The local government areas to have the highest criminal incident rates were Melbourne, followed by Latrobe, Yarra, Port Phillip and Mildura. 

Regulatory offences dropped off significantly given the decline of COVID-19 rule breaches.