The ‘Dark Figure of Homicide’: Unreported Australian Homicide

Abstract

Unreported Australian homicides have not been discussed in Australian publications for over 20 years. Unreported homicides or the dark figure of homicide are homicides that go unreported by official sources hiding them from investigators and tracking. Although unreported homicides are difficult to quantify, this article demonstrates that there is a great likelihood of Australia’s annual homicide numbers are actually higher than recorded. This qualitative research highlights specific crime typologies that have possible hidden deceased victims within them due to the complexities of the specific crimes. This research is the first of its kind in contemporary Australia and offers specific new categories for future research.

Keywords

• dark figure of homicide
• unreported homicide
• hidden crimes
• australian homicide