Western Australia worst state in Australia for crime: report

Western Australia is fast becoming the Australian state most susceptible to crime, according to new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Friday.

Of the 10 major crime categories listed by the ABS, Western Australia ranks as the country's worst state in seven of them.

In addition, the state has recorded worse crime figures in six of the aforementioned seven crime categories from the previous year, including sexual assault cases, break-ins, motor vehicle theft, malicious property damage and face-to-face threatened assault.

According to the ABS report, 4.8 percent of all Western Australian citizens reported break-ins throughout the last year, compared to the nationwide rate of just 2.6 percent.

Both face-to-face assaults and car thefts in Western Australia also verged on doubling the rates of the rest of the country.

However, Western Australia's police commissioner But Karl O' Callaghan has accused the ABS of using misleading statistics in its report, saying that they were unaware of the legal definitions of each crime category.

O'Callaghan, who has been the police commissioner of the state since 2004, did concede more needed to be done across the board to alleviate a high rate of crime across Western Australia.

"I simply don't like the survey and I think it's incorrect," O'Callaghan said. "But there are some categories which we know are up in Western Australia.. but we do have solutions for them." Endi