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Preventing crime in Australia 1990 - 2002: a selected register of crime prevention projects

Introduction

Over the last few decades the view has developed in many Western nations that traditional policing and criminal justice systems are not, by themselves, capable of reducing crime. Although the capacity of police, courts, and prisons to control crime continues to be strong, there is growing feeling that more needs to be done to prevent crime. Consequently, new crime prevention strategies are constantly being developed.

Australia has an established history of criminological innovation, including a wide range of crime prevention projects undertaken by commonwealth, state/territory, local government agencies, community groups, academics and individual members of the public. Significant steps are being taken to develop theories of crime prevention and to document the effectiveness of new crime prevention programs.

This register is a compilation of crime prevention projects, including research, programs and evaluations, that have been undertaken, reported and published in Australia between January 1990 and January 2002.

The following information was gathered for each crime prevention project identified:

The aim of this register is to provide a valuable resource for federal, state, territory and local government crime prevention and criminal justice agencies as it identifies projects that have been developed and research that has been conducted in Australia from which it is possible to ascertain areas in which future research is needed. In addition, it establishes the extent to which the crime prevention projects identified have been evaluated. To date, few comprehensive attempts have been made to document Australian crime prevention projects in this way.

The crime prevention projects presented in this publication have (a) been funded by the Criminology Research Council, (b) received an Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Award or commendation, or (c) had articles about them published in selected Australian academic journals since January 1990.

The Criminology Research Council, established by the Criminology Research Act, 1971, implements arrangements between the Commonwealth and the States including administration of the Criminology Research Fund for high quality criminological (including crime prevention) research.

The annual Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards, formerly the Australian Violence Prevention Awards, are sponsored by the Heads of Australian Governments as a joint Commonwealth, State and Territory initiative. The awards are designed to reward the most outstanding projects for the prevention or reduction of violence and crime, to encourage public initiatives and to assist governments in identifying and developing practical projects which may reduce violence and crime in the community.

The academic journals reviewed were The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, Current Issues in Criminal Justice and Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice. These journals were chosen because they are Australia's principal criminological journals. In addition, crime prevention projects undertaken by some government agencies were included.

The list of projects is somewhat selective both with respect to its period of coverage, i.e. 1990 to 2002, and also the sources of information from which the projects were chosen. Projects funded by bodies such as the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council were not specifically included, although some were identified in the review of published research. Similarly there may be omissions of work from some government welfare, educational, social and research agencies that seek to reduce crime through early intervention or by providing support and services to families. Finally, the current publication is concerned with crime prevention in a specifically Australian context. It is believed, however, that the register provides a record of the vast majority of crime prevention projects undertaken in Australia in recent years.