Home burglaries across Greater Bendigo have risen by more than 20 per cent, with the city seeing an increase in criminal incidents overall in the past year.
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The latest data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows the number of criminal incidents - events that can involve multiple individual offences - rose by 3 per cent from March 2019 to March 2020 in Greater Bendigo.
The criminal incident rate in the municipality was 6948.1 per 100,000 people, compared to the Victorian rate of 6111.5.
The number of individual crimes rose by 1.2 per cent.
The figures show property and deception offences were the most common crimes in Greater Bendigo and the number of these rose between March 2019 and March 2020 by 9.8 per cent.
Almost 3300 thefts were reported, making it the single most prevalent type of crime.
Burglaries of homes, both aggravated (when a person is in the home) and non-aggravated, rose significantly.
The figures show there were 72 aggravated burglaries and 467 non-aggravated burglaries across Greater Bendigo last year, an increase 20.6 per cent on the year before.
But the number of offences against the person, drug, public order and security, and justice procedure offences all fell.
Sexual offences dropped by 5.7 per cent.
Drug trafficking rose by 13.3 per cent, but use and possession fell by 10.1 per cent.
In Mount Alexander, the number of criminal incidents rose by 19 per cent.
Thefts were also the most common crime, but sexual offences more than doubled - from 35 to 71.
The number of aggravated and non-aggravated burglaries of homes also rose.
While the crime rate rose - from 3801.8 to 4488.6 criminal incidents per 100,000 people - it stayed below the overall Victorian rate.
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Buloke Shire experienced an 18.7 per cent jump in criminal incidents, although the rate of crime also remained below that of the state.
Donald and Charlton saw the most crime.
There was also an increase in Gannawarra shire.
But other shires in central and northern Victoria saw crime fall over the course of the year.
The number of criminal incidents in Campaspe Shire dropped by 4.1 per cent, and Central Goldfields saw a 5.5 per cent decrease.
In Loddon Shire, the number of criminal incidents was down 4.9 per cent on the previous year, while Macedon Ranges saw a drop of 3.3 per cent.
