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This paper is taken from the report of research commissioned by the Criminology Research Council.

A report released by the Australian Institute of Criminology has evaluated a burglary reduction operation undertaken by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in Canberra in 2001. The report concludes that the AFP were successful in reducing levels of burglary in the ACT by a significant amount. Operation Anchorage employed strategies including the use of surveillance teams, targeting known prolific offenders, traffic enforcement in high-burglary areas, and extensive use of intelligence analysis to focus police efforts.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released a report detailing information about the illegal abalone market in Australia. The report identifies the different ways in which abalone may be illegally caught, namely: by organised poachers, licensed divers, shore-based divers, extended family groups or individuals. Such abalone is then prepared for consumption, often in illegal processing factories or "backyard" set-ups. While some abalone is kept for personal use, most is destined for sale.

Foreword | Adolescents who develop severe conduct disorders are at greater risk of becoming involved in juvenile crime, including property crime, interpersonal violence, theft, arson and illegal substance use. Prior research has found that dysfunctional parenting practices often place children at risk of developing conduct problems and are among the strongest predictors of later delinquent behaviour. Various programs have been developed to assist parents in improving their parenting skills.

Foreword | Using jurors to ascertain public opinion on sentencing has a number of advantages over other methods. Jurors' opinions are based on informed judgements rather than uninformed, intuitive responses and they have detailed knowledge of the offence and a sense of the offender as a real person. Using a sample of jurors from Tasmanian courts, this study examined the utility of using jurors to gauge public opinion on sentencing and as a means of informing the public about crime and sentencing issues.

Foreword | Arsonists and bushfire arsonists cause a considerable amount of damage to property, flora and fauna, endanger lives, and tie up the resources of the fire services. However, little research has been done on these offenders in Australia. This paper reports on data obtained on 1,232 arson defendants (133 of whom were known to be appearing for a bushfire arson offence), who appeared before NSW courts between 2001 and 2006.

Foreword | The internet is an affordable and effective place for small businesses to sell and promote their goods and services. However, the internet also provides opportunities for fraudulent behaviour and unauthorised access to business and client data. Attacks on the computer system of a business can have immediate and ongoing effects, such as targeting customers for identity crimes or infecting website visitors with malicious software.

Graffiti refers to the act of marking property with writing, symbols or graphics and is illegal when produced without consent (White 2001). Types of graffiti include tagging, large and elaborate 'pieces', political graffiti and urban art (the only legal form of graffiti). Each type has distinctive features and motives for creation can include peer status, notoriety and political protest.

Profiling: '... an educated attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific information as to the type of individual who committed a certain crime...' (Geberth 1996: 710).

Foreword | Digital technologies are often considered effective methods of deterring or preventing crime. New forms of surveillance have particular appeal when attempting to reduce violence in the night-time economy, given ongoing concerns over perceived increases in the frequency and severity of reported assaults. This study examines the rationales for adopting compulsory patron ID scanning as a key method of reducing violence in and around licensed venues in the Victorian regional city of Geelong.

Foreword | Seizing drugs and arresting those who import, manufacture, grow and/or distribute these drugs is often viewed as the most important purpose of drug law enforcement. This view is certainly strong in popular media depictions of organised drug criminals. Unfortunately, the reality is perhaps far less entertaining or straightforward, although just as, if not more, important.

Foreword | This paper is the second in a series that examines the different components of the criminal justice response to trafficking in persons. Specifically, this paper seeks to identify some of the practical issues that may affect trafficking prosecutions, such as unclear legal frameworks, the transnational nature of trafficking, and reliance on often traumatised victims as witnesses who may also be unwilling or unable to participate in prosecutions.

Foreword | The criminal justice system is a complex process involving police, courts and corrections. Historically these component parts have tended to act autonomously yet their actions impact on each other. Increasingly criminal justice policy-makers have come to recognise the need to understand the long term impacts of policy changes across the whole system. To effectively and efficiently manage the criminal justice system, policy-makers require analytical tools to project the relative effects of changes to policies based on current system information.

Foreword | This study examines whether seizures of heroin, cocaine or amphetamine-type substances (ATS) or supplier arrests for heroin, cocaine or ATS trafficking affect emergency department admissions related to, or arrests for, use and possession of these drugs. Two strategies were employed to answer the question. The first involved a time series analysis of the relationship between seizures, supplier arrests, emergency department admissions and use/possess arrests.