Statistics obtained by The Courier show the number of offences rose from 104 to 237 incidents in the past five years.

The Ballarat Police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team has experienced a surge of sex (non-rape) crime cases.

When asked if there was a reason why sex crime had increased, SOCIT Senior Sergeant Tim Argall said it could not be determined.

“That’s the million-dollar question,” he said.

“It would be naive to rule out an increase in actual offences as a factor. We are still seeing the figures climb every year.

“We’ve just noticed ourselves without seeing the stats that our cases, our day-to-day workload has significantly increased.”

The figures also show Ballarat has experienced a spike in reported family violence  in the past five years.

Statistics show an increase from 925 reported incidents to 1697 since mid-2009.

Victoria Police, family violence and welfare agencies cannot determine exactly why the figures have risen so sharply, attributing it to several factors including increased confidence in reporting.

An analysis of the statistics by The Courier found that based on a measure of incidents per 100,000 population, postcode 3355 (Wendouree, Mitchell Park and Lake Gardens) had the highest number of family violence incidents in the past financial year.

Postcode 3356 (Sebastopol, Delacombe and Bonshaw) also recorded higher than average incidents while, in stark contrast, Buninyong experienced a relatively low number of incidents.

Incidents are recorded when police attend an address in response to a family violence call-out. 

The increase in reported incidents is beginning to slow, with a 3 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.

The number of female victims far outweighed that of males, by 76 per cent in 1294 cases.

In 620 incidents, or almost 40 per cent, the offender is the partner of the victim.

However, incidents where the relationship is child to parent have risen substantially, from 143 to 411 incidents. Incidents where the victim was the former partner of the offender were more than three times higher than in 2009-10.

Similar to family violence incidents, sex offences have begun to plateau, with an increase of two incidents in the past 12 months.

In 85 per cent of sex offences last year, the offender was known to the victim. Rape cases have fluctuated in the past five years, peaking at 52 cases in 2011-12.

Support services in Ballarat are struggling to cope with the demand due to a funding shortage.

WRISC Family Violence Support for women executive officer Libby Jewson said the confidence in women to report was attributed to a greater collaboration of services and media awareness. But she said a shortage of funding and support was straining the agency’s services.

“A lack of resources makes it difficult,” she said. “We are working collaboratively with organisations better; our lack of resources means we are exploring other options for funding and help. 

“These numbers (funds) are changing but the increase has been insufficient.”

david.jeans@fairfaxmedia.com.au