LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Does Victoria have a problem or not with African gang violence? It's been a hot talking point for at least a year but especially in recent weeks with politicians weighing in after a spate of violent incidents involving youths from African back grounds.

Even today the Prime Minister and Victoria's Acting Premier clashed at what was meant to be a good news press conference, disagreeing over whether Victoria is on top of crime.

7.30 decided to go behind the political point scoring and overheated rhetoric.

Reporter Lauren Day dug into the statistics to find out the truth of what's going on.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: We are very concerned at the growing gang violence and lawlessness in Melbourne.

NEWS REPORTER: The major problem with youth gangs.

NEWS REPORTER: Melbourne's violence involving suburban street gangs.

SHANE PATTON: They're behaving like street gangs so let's call them that.

AFRICAN COMMUNITY LEADER: The issues that are happening are not in any way shape or form related to gang as they've been reported.

PETER DUTTON: People are scared to go out of a night-time because they're followed home by these gangs.

LAUREN DAY, REPORTER: If you live outside of Melbourne, it is likely your only exposure to the African crime debate has been through the media.

The Moomba Festival riots two years' ago put African youth crime in the spotlight. Most of the blame was pinned on the so-called Apex Gang, but some have question whether that group was overhyped by the media.

The African crime issue again flared up recently after a spate of offences attributed to young people of African, especially Sudanese decent.

In mid-December there was a big street brawl in St Kilda, the following week an Airbnb property was trashed after a party got out of hand in the Western suburb of Werribee. And then on Boxing Day a police officer was kicked in the face by a 17-year-old at a shopping centre.

Since then there's been heated debate between politicians, police and the community about what's going on with African crime and whether there is, in fact, a crisis.

So, we've drilled down into the latest crime stats to see what story they tell.

Six million people live in Victoria. 4.5 million of those in Greater Melbourne. People born in Sudan make up just 0.1 per cent of the state's total population.

Most live in Melbourne, mainly in the western suburbs, where I am now and the south eastern suburbs, including Dandenong and Noble Park.

In the year to September 2017, that 0.1 per cent of the population made up 1.4 per cent of all alleged offenders in Victoria, that is people that police have linked to crimes, although they may not necessarily have been found guilty or been charged.

So there clearly is an overrepresentation.

DR REBECCA WICKES: There certainly is some overrepresentation, again, just how much, is unclear. But we're seeing increases in other groups as well. But it's important to also keep in mind that we're talking about a very small number of offences and a very small number of offenders when we think about the large population of Victoria and the extent to which Victoria has an overrepresentation of minority groups.

LAUREN DAY: As you'd probably guessed, the overwhelming majority of crimes in Victoria are committed by those born in Australia, followed by New Zealanders.

At number five on the alleged offender list by country of birth is Sudan. Of the 81,000 offenders across Victoria in 2016, 807 were Sudanese-born.

And there are some offences where the overrepresentation of young, Sudanese Victorians really comes into focus. In the year to September 2017, when you focus on the stats for alleged youth offenders aged between 10-18.

Sudanese born Victorians were involved in 3 per cent of serious assaults, 2 per cent of non-aggravated burglaries, 5 per cent of motor vehicle thefts and 8.6 per cent of aggravated burglaries.

And it should be said that doesn't include second or third generation Sudanese Victorians, only those born in Sudan.

DR REBECCA WICKES: We know that they are more likely to be from disadvantaged backgrounds, that they have experienced a range of adverse childhood experiences. So we know that that's a very strong indication of why we're seeing that representation in the numbers.

LAUREN DAY: But, overall, youth crime has fallen in Victoria, from half of all incidents ten years ago, to 40 per cent in 2015-16.

And Victoria's total crime rate has fallen by about 6 per cent. The biggest drop in 12 years.

DR REBECCA WICKES: If you were someone who was wanting to think about odds of being victimised, you would be much more correct in being fearful of someone who was Australian-born than you would be from someone having been born overseas.