The counting units are recorded criminal incidents. A large number of assaults, sexual assaults, and robberies, are not reported to the police. Local Government Areas were grouped according to Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) Remoteness categories on the basis of Accessibility/Remoteness Index for Australia (ARIA+ version) score.
Crime has adverse effects on health. Personal violence and assault, including domestic violence, has direct short-term and long-term effects on the physical and mental health of its victims and witnesses. Victims of property crime may also suffer psychological harm. Additionally, fear of crime may be a factor that limits some people's enjoyment of life. Crime and ill-health also share common causes. Areas with high crime rates tend to have higher death rates, indicating that the social origins of crime - including social disorganisation, income inequality and low social capital - are also causes of ill-health (Kawachi et al., 1999). In NSW, between 2003 and 2005, there has been a decline in the numbers of both assaults and robberies and thefts reported to police. Recent trends in recorded crime are identified and described in NSW Recorded Crime Statistics 2005 (Moffatt et al., 2006).
In 2005, a total of 78,750 assaults and robberies were reported in NSW, giving a rate of 11.7 per 1,000 NSW population. In the same year, there were 300,518 reported thefts (44.6 per 1,000 population). These figures underestimate the true rates of these crimes, because a large number of assaults, sexual assaults, and robberies, are not reported to the police. Outer regional and remote areas (15.8 per 1,000 population) had rates of assaults and robberies approximately one and a half times those of inner regional (11.6 per 1,000 population) and metropolitan (11.0 per 1,000 population) areas. The rate of assaults and robberies ranged from 7.0 per 1,000 population in the Northern Sydney and Central Coast Area Health Service to 18.6 per 1,000 population in the Greater Western Area Health Service. The rate of thefts was highest in the metropolitan areas (45.8 per 1,000 population) , followed by outer regional and remote areas (41.0 per 1,000 population) and inner regional (39.5 per 1,000 population) areas. The rate of thefts ranged from 33.9 per 1,000 population in the Northern Sydney and Central Coast Area Health Service to 64.2 per 1,000 population in the South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service.
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Population Health Division. The health of the people of New South Wales -
Report of the Chief Health Officer. Sydney: NSW Department of Health. Available at:
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