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Year in review: Crime spike and family violence in Casey

Crime around Casey took a spike in 2025, with the highest number of crimes, including family violence incidents, reported in years.

According to annual data released from the Crime Statistics Agency Victoria (CSA), a total of 23,128 offences were recorded in the year ending September 2025 — this was a 21.3 per cent increase from the previous calendar year.

As well as family violence incidents, among the top crimes are cases of motor vehicle theft and theft from retail stores and other thefts.

Both Narre Warren and Cranbourne were among the top targeted Casey suburbs with 3201 criminal incidents reported in Cranbourne and 2857 in Narre Warren.

Berwick wasn’t far off with a reported 2519 criminal incidents.

Theft was the highest recorded type of offence, with 11,460 incidents recorded in Casey.

Specifically, stealing from a motor vehicle accounted for 4476 of this, while 2026 incidents of motor vehicle theft were recorded.

The latest crime statistics also reflected the region’s family violence crisis, recording the highest number of family incidents among all Victorian municipalities, with 6607 family incidents recorded.

This revealed an alarming spike of more than 10 per cent from the previous year, which recorded 5950 family incidents.

The concerning rise in family incidents was also reflected in Casey Council’s endeavours to bring awareness to the acute challenges surrounding domestic and family violence, specifically when relating to women fleeing from violence and dangerous situations.

Back in October, Council to Homeless Persons (CHP) launched a ‘Walk in Her Shoes’ campaign at Bunjil Place Library to highlight the rising numbers of women and young girls struggling with homelessness.

Coupled with the data from CSA Vic, CHP’s 2025 housing security index reports indicated that nearly 60 per cent of those struggling with homelessness are women and that family violence remains to be the driving cause.

Equally with an increase in the number of people showing up at their doors, homelessness services and housing facilities in Casey were struggling to keep up as their capacity to provide resources was inundated and while social housing waitlists grew to 7.4 per cent from the previous year according to CHP.

According to the same report by CHP, the crisis can be attributed to “the decades-long lack of investment in social housing across the state”.

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