Aaron Gilhooley is a former drug trafficker who has escaped the cycle of drug use in Shepparton.
Key points:
- Most crimes have returned to pre-pandemic trends after two unusual years
- Some new trends have emerged in parts of Victoria
- Increased help-seeking and police crackdowns may explain hotspots for drug trafficking and family violence
Mr Gilhooley is now a rehab manager in the regional city that recorded nearly twice as many drug trafficking offences per resident as anywhere else in Victoria last financial year.
“I turned to drug trafficking to support my habit and was bailed to The Cottage [a residential rehab centre] in the middle of 2018. In October [that year], I started volunteering,” he said.
Mr Gilhooley said most drug traffickers in Shepparton were people moving from “smaller amounts” to support their habit and more people were volunteering themselves for rehabilitation.
“We are having a lot more people applying [for rehabilitation] from the community — people genuinely wanting to get help for their drug issues,” he said.
Shepparton is just one part of Victoria that has seen a return to pre-pandemic trends after a two-year slump in criminal offences.
Statistics from Shepparton, together with other new hotspots for family violence and sexual offences, have revealed a “new normal” for crime in 2023.
Importantly, experts and support workers believe police crackdowns and increased help-seeking from victims explain a large part of the rise in certain offences.
Drug trafficking in Shepparton is a prime example.
Despite the sharp rise in drug trafficking offences in Shepparton, the total number of occasions where police charged someone (for criminal incidents) is steady.
That suggests it is not just small drug traffickers and users behind the spike.
Police have been publicly cracking down on drug trafficking in the regional city, most notably in a major methamphetamine bust that resulted in 700 charges last December.
Police raids continue in Shepparton with another widely publicised raid occurring in October.
“Detectives from our Divisional Response Unit and Crime Investigation Units continue to target those dealing or trafficking drugs that contribute harm to our community,” a police spokesperson said.
Family violence
In the past financial year alone, the number of family violence intervention orders heard in a specialist court nearly tripled to 22,916 statewide.
For Crime Statistics Agency head Fiona Dowsley, the rise “demonstrates an increase in the capacity of the criminal justice system to apply specialist knowledge to manage often complex family violence matters”.
“Evidence suggests that this can result in better outcomes for victim survivors of family violence,” Ms Dowsley said.
Breaches of family violence orders have remained high since a sharp rise during the 2020–21 lockdown period.
Other family violence offences had been increasing even before the pandemic — especially in regions like Latrobe, north-west Victoria, and greater Shepparton.
Calvin Henry manages family and youth services at the Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-operative in far north-west Victoria.
He said he saw family violence rise during the pandemic as accessing support services became more difficult.
“A lot of stuff happened during COVID that wasn’t appropriate,” Mr Henry said.
“The willingness [to seek help] is low and it takes a lot of time for perpetrators to come to terms with what they’ve done… but I would say it’s getting better.”
Programs like his have produced success stories in the Indigenous community.
“I’ve seen long tenures of domestic violence from a perpetrator and that person going down the right path to get support,” Mr Henry said.
“We’re very happy that family is now reunified and there’s no domestic violence in that house anymore.”
Sexual offences
Ararat, in west Victoria, had almost twice as many sexual offences per resident as any other part of the state last financial year despite a relatively low number of total incidents.
Like family violence, sexual offences have risen steadily over the past decade and remained high after peaking during the 2020–21 lockdown.
Victoria Police attributed the discrepancy to a residential facility for sexual offenders located in the town, as well as “community confidence in reporting these crimes to [police]”.
However, Ms Dowsley said justice institutions were not included in Ararat’s data.
She said the high offence numbers were more likely due to a small number of online sex crimes.
“[Online sex offences] are recorded in a very granular way. Each image could be counted [as a separate offence],” she said.
Jessica Cadwallader works for the Central Highlands Integrated Family Violence Committee, which coordinates support services across central-west Victoria.
Dr Cadwallader was not surprised by the numbers but suggested they did not necessarily mean things were getting worse in Ararat.
“It aligns with what we see in Ararat in terms of family violence and measures of child wellbeing,” she said.
“Potentially what we’re seeing is more a result of building trust in the community that they will respond appropriately to sexual assault allegations.”
Seeking help
The data cited here is drawn from the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency, which publishes numbers of offences and criminal incidents across the state.
While it may give the impression that crime is increasing, the statistics show that most types of crime are steady or slowly falling year-on-year.
The average is also brought up by a handful of hotspots including the City of Melbourne and certain regional centres.
For Ms Dowsley, the biggest take away from the “new normal” of crime was the increase in help-seeking behaviour from victims.
Mr Henry, Dr Cadwallader, and Mr Gilhooley each independently observed the same in their communities.
“These are reports coming into Victoria Police, so each one is a chance for intervention and support,” Ms Dowsley said.