Benalla has seen its crime rates increase in several areas from 2024.
The total number of criminal incidents in Benalla Rural City has jumped to its highest rate in a decade — with a 21.1 per cent jump in family incidents reported.
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Its rate of criminal incidents per 100,000 residents is also 18.61 per cent higher than the Victorian average.
In the year ending March 2025, there were 1170 criminal incidents in Benalla Rural City, compared to 1021 at the same time in 2024.
Of those 1170 criminal incidents, 401 remain unsolved (34.3 per cent), 232 resulted in no charges being laid (19.8 per cent) and 537 incidents resulted in charges being laid (45.9 per cent).
Total criminal incidents were up in all top five represented locations within Benalla Rural City:
Benalla: 1013 incidents, up from 833 in 2024.
Baddaginnie: 26 incidents, up from 19 in 2024.
Winton: 16 incidents, up from 14 in 2024.
Goorambat: 16 incidents, up from eight in 2024.
Lurg: 10 incidents, up from two in 2024.
Criminal incidents, offences recorded, alleged offender incidents, person victim reports and family incidents (all per 100,000 residents) have all increased in Benalla in the past 12 months.
The most common crime reported in Benalla Rural City was ‘breach family violence order’, with 163 incidents.
Joint second were thefts and drug possession, each with 104 incidents.
There were 101 incidents of criminal damage.
All of these were up from the previous year.
The fifth most common crime, ‘theft from a motor vehicle’, saw 54 incidents, which was a drop from 72 incidents from 2024.
The total number of offences recorded in Benalla Rural City was also the highest in the past decade — 1908, up from 1518 in 2024, a jump of 20.4 per cent.
Benalla Rural City has the ninth highest rate of ‘family incidents’ per capita in Victoria with 2808.9 incidents per 100,000 residents. This equates to 414 incidents reported, a jump of 21.1 per cent from 2024.
This places Benalla Rural City well above the per capita state average, which is 1497.1 per 100,000 residents.
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