Australian homicide data reveals NSW tops other states

NSW recorded 61 homicides, Victoria had 48 and Queensland had 42, according to the latest data from the Australian Institute of Criminology.

The report shows there were 210 homicides recorded by police between July 2020 and June 2021.

This represents the second lowest homicide rate for Australia since reporting began in 1989-90.

AIC deputy director Dr Rick Brown cited the various stages of COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns affecting Australians during this period.

He said the rate of female intimate partner homicide, 0.25 per 100,000 people, was the lowest in three decades.

Overall, nearly 60 per cent of homicides happened in the home of the victim, offender or another person.

Homicides where the victim was a stranger to the offender mostly happened on a streetscape, such as in cases of driving causing death.

In 80 per cent of incidents at least one weapon was used, including knives in 79 incidents and firearms in 23 incidents.

Despite NSW recording 24 fewer homicides in 2020-21 than the previous year, it still led the other states and territories with 61.

The numbers in Victoria and Queensland were also down on the previous year by 18 and 8 respectively.

The only increases came in the ACT, with four more than the previous year, and Tasmania, with one more.

The AIC Homicide in Australia report defines homicide as the unlawful killing of a person.

More than two-thirds of homicide victims were men in 2020-21, according to the report.

However, women were "significantly more likely to be killed by an intimate partner or family member".

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Dr Brown said ten per cent of homicide victims identified as Indigenous.

"The report found that the clearance rate for these incidents was the same as it was for homicide incidents involving non-Indigenous victims - 90 per cent at the time of reporting."

Homicides are mostly "cleared" by way of the offender or offenders being charged.