If you need support, you can ask someone you trust to help you contact police.
You can get help and apply for financial assistance as a victim of crime – even if no one is charged.
You can apply for an intervention order to protect yourself and your family.
Reporting a crime may:
- increase your personal safety
- lead to police charging the person and prevent them from doing it again
- assist you to get support
- help you to apply for financial assistance
- make it possible to make an insurance claim for damaged or stolen property.
Remember, you can discuss your options with police before deciding if you will formally report the crime.
Call the Victims of Crime Helpline
You can contact the Victims of Crime Helpline on 1800 819 817 every day from 8am to 11pm for advice about reporting a crime and discuss supports available to you.
All crime is serious, and your safety is important
It does not matter what happened or when it happened, all crime is serious. When you report a crime to police you will be listened to and they can tell you about options that can help make you safer.
You can choose to have a support person to help you contact the police and be with you when you talk to them, if it will make it more comfortable.
When you report a crime, the police will listen to your story and investigate what happened. Sometimes, the information you tell them will be enough. In some cases, police need to talk to other people who may have witnessed or been involved in the crime.
If the police do not have enough information or there are different versions of events, there may not be enough evidence to continue the investigation or lay charges. You can find out more about how police decide to lay charges.
Even if charges are not laid, this does not mean the police did not believe what you told them.
You can still get support and victims of violent crime may still be eligible to apply for financial assistance. You can also apply for an intervention order to protect yourself and your family members. This is a different process to a criminal trial.
Find out more about keeping safe
As a victim of crime your safety is important, and there are things that can be done to help improve it. You can find out more about keeping safe on this website, including:
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