Monitoring trends and patterns in homicide in Australia has been made possible through the National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) and its continued annual collection of data relating to police-recorded homicides since 1989. In June 2000, the first ever compendium of a decade of homicide in Australia was published by the Australian Institute of Criminology (Mouzos 2000a).
This paper analyses NHMP data for the most current year—1 July 1999 to 30 June 2000—and provides a statistical snapshot of homicide in Australia. It reports that patterns of homicide have remained largely stable over the year, with 1999–2000 recording a slight decrease compared to the previous year, and with the Northern Territory exhibiting a marked downward trend. Consistent with previous years, more people are killed by stabbing than any other method of homicide, and more people are kicked to death or strangled than shot. Furthermore, people who are not working are more likely to be both offenders and victims of homicide than are people who are employed. Australia recorded a homicide victimisation rate of 1.8 per 100,000 population for the 1999–2000 fiscal year.