Crime in Melbourne, Australia

I've moved here from overseas and so far this is the most crime ridden city I've lived in, my place got robbed once, credit card stolen once, and multiple attempted scams. That's being a very careful person and staying in a "good" suburb. The worst thing is absolutely useless cops who won't show up for hours and hours unless it's a murder or something very violent where a person might get bashed to death. More tax should go towards police in this state, I was never the one pro-cops but this city needs it. Too many scumbags and drug users who couldn't care less.

Ok I'm writing this post in response to many of the others below. Especially the very first post by someone who appears to have spent some time living in USA.

I lived in Melbourne for 40 years and it has definitely changed, got more over populated, and people are more busy and more desperate since the housing prices started becoming unaffordable. Once you've travelled to a few countries, you get a feeling for what "safety" really is. You can get used to a certain degree of crime and consider your city to be "safe", until you go to another country and realise that actually, Melbourne is not as safe as you think.

It's not a very safe city, but you're not as likely to get attacked in Melbourne like you might in other cities. Unless it is Friday or Saturday night where people get drunk and get into fights, that definitely happens a lot. So stay away from those people. I would not call Melbourne "dangerous", but some suburbs are dangerous and I avoid those suburbs. No matter where you go, even a rich suburb, you do keep in mind where your bag or backpack is at all times in case it gets stolen or your wallet or purse is taken, but if you are smart, educated and aware, you can have a life where none of these things happen to you. So it is relatively safe. Just don’t get confused and think it is like a safe little town in Western Europe, ok? In Melbourne there is more of a divide between rich and poor, more homelessness and poverty, and this will always lead to higher crime rates and safety issues, it's hard to avoid when the average house price is $1 Million dollars, which is the case in Melbourne. When the average yearly salary is somewhere around the $50-70K for an adult, often with university education, you can see why owning a house is now so hard.

Sure, Melbourne scores well on liveable city indexes, people definitely do not carry guns (thank goodness), but a few people carry knifes and weapons, and if you live in the right suburb, you might live your entire life without getting robbed. But on average I think everybody in this city has at least had their wallet quietly stolen from their handbag once. The key here, like any city, is to look at the safest and unsafest town or suburb. You're not just looking at the city centre where all the tourists go, you're also looking at the areas where people live, and it's a very big city that you need a car to travel in, so this should be taken into consideration. It takes 2 hours to drive from outer East to outer Western suburbs.

There are rich suburbs with less crime, and then, like any other city, there are suburbs where there are disadvantaged people, and often these areas tend to have people who are international and not native to the country - again, like any other city - and these areas are where the values of the people are going to be different because perhaps is a lack of cultural integration. And also cultural misunderstanding, different values and experiences, and not enough support for these people.

The unsafe suburbs change over time, but here is what I can tell you of my own knowledge. Unsafe suburbs where you are more likely to get mugged or have things taken from your car or home are probably going to be more commonly Melton, Broadmeadows, Frankston, Dandenong, and all of these above listed places' surrounding suburbs. Right now Melton is the one of the newer areas that houses are being built, it is very far away from the main part of Melb, so it is cheaper and it attracts disadvantaged people that are desperate and so the crime goes up. And this is for people of all cultures who live there - including "Australian" white people, who are commonly labelled here as "bogans". In America they would call them white trash or trailer trash. Got it? Generally the West, which is further away from the beaches and more industrial or lacking in infrastructure is where you will find disadvantaged areas too. The places along the coast where the beaches are, tend to have more money and less crime, but again, this is always changing. The beach is beautiful, so it's a popular place to live. Right now Frankston and Carrum are not really safe but they are near the beach and they are getting better slowly. But the population grows, more people want to live by the beach, and then the prices in the beach towns go up and the disadvantaged people move out. A process called gentrification. This is what happened to Black Rock and Beaumaris - 20 years ago they were very unsafe places, but now only dentists and surgeons live there because it is so expensive, so crime is not anywhere near as high in those areas any more.

You get my drift? In any city you can find pockets or areas of disadvantage, and this is where you won’t feel safe walking home at night alone. I can tell you that even in wealthy suburbs like Hawthorn, Kew, Ivanhoe, Prahran, I do not feel safe walking home at night, especially not as a female. It's ok if you are made, you are less likely to be targeted.

Melbourne is a generally safe city, but I've definitely seen much safer cities in Europe, so we cannot ignore the fact that there is an undertow of crime and problems that are not being managed, and I think that this is beging accurately reflected in the Numbeo statistics.

And finally, I think a very good measure of safety of a city, which perhaps Numbeo should measure somehow, is what is the youngest age that you think a child is safe to walk to and from school by themselves. In Melbourne, you'd say that maybe around the age of 13. And that's just walking to and from school. The children then stay home where they are safe. They do not walk to the shops by themselves at 13, maybe but not really, that's more for disadvantaged areas where the adults aren't taking proper care of their children. In any suburb, rich or poor, if you saw a child out in the town who was 9 or 10 years old and they were alone, you would check that they have an adult accompanying them, or you would be worried and ask them if they are ok. You wouldn't want a child that young walking around without an adult in Melbourne, as there is a worry they they could get kidnapped.

I have no idea what is like I live in Brisbane but I know that it is really bad where I am I am a 14-year-old girl and there are people my age that is happy to go to the city and to the shops all on their own but I will no leave my house without having someone right next to me everywhere I go this is because I am way to scared because I see all those things on the news where teenager girls go missing or people getting killed. after watching all those things I am way too scared because what if that were to happen to me?

Any home invader/burglar asks to be bashed up so hard that he cannot even stand up.
Breaking in & attacking residents calls for Taliban type laws.

Considering how many young women have been murdered in Melbourne and two terrorist attacks in the CBD this data is obviously rigged, notice how places in the North of the country score much higher yet they don't have monthly murders of young people or attacks on there citizens...

I don't get the comments talking about break ins, I never had a single one, and I was born here!

Don't listen to the alarmist comments below. Melbourne is one of the safest cities in the world which is why it scores highly in livibility indexes. The city's multiculturalism is one of its strengths. There is no city like it.

do not walk around areas of north Melbourne - places like roxburgh park, Craigieburn, dandenong, sunshine, broadmeadows and frankston there is a high crime rate of youths and they can be VERY dangerous at times

Look, I have no idea what tf everyone leaving comments on this page is talking about, bc half of these people are foreigners leaving bad comments and nitpicking every little crime that may, or may not have occurred in or around the city. This is fkng Melbourne, one of the most advanced and safest cities in the country, walking around at daytime is completely safe in the city as there are policemen on every block making sure the streets are safe and sound. Melbourne has a bustling nightlife, with the city staying alive and secure well through the night. Although there is a small chance of getting mugged in this city, you can be sure that it is almost guaranteed that you will never be physically harmed or assaulted in this city. The scariest thing that will most likely happen is a poor guy asking for 5 or 10 bucks. I will admit that there are many beggars in the street, but you should be safe if you keep your distance from them, however in most cases they are harmless. People usually only get aggressive when they are provoked, which young teenagers and adults sometimes take for granted. I can assure ya'll that walking around the city alone is very safe, and if travelling in a group or even just with one other person basically means no-one will ever try to bother you, as you have another person on your side and most people in the city most likely want to keep their privacy too. People in Melbourne are very colourful, many different cultures and ethnicities as Melbourne is very multicultural. Drugs can be a problem in Melbourne, but laws are very strict against them and they most likely won't affect you unless you are taking them. I'd say Melbourne is safer than most cities in America, as no-one can own a semi-auto or automatic firearm let alone carry carry them around in public. Laws against knives in public are also very strict, as you can only carry one around in public for work or professional purposes. The only people that would ever be allowed to carry around a pistol or rifle in public are police and private security services. All in all, everyone who comments on here is either a super prejudiced, Australian patriot skinhead or a foreigner wanting to leave a bad comment for laughs. I have no idea if this website is even a reputable source for safety ratings in cities and countries, but when I see these comments about my home city it does bring out the little patriot in me. Don't listen to these trolls wanting to give Melbourne a bad look on this website, they're just sitting behind their keyboard laughing and feeling good about themselves.