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This project was funded by the Crime Prevention Branch of the Criminal Justice Division, Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department.

This paper is taken from the report of research undertaken with the assistance of a grant from the Criminology Research Council.

References

• Criminology Research Council

This paper is taken from the report of research undertaken with the assistance of a grant from the Criminology Research Advisory Council.

• A longer version of this paper is also available for download:​​​​​​

Improving the quality of programs to prevent youth crime is important to enhance outcomes for children and adolescents, to increase community perceptions of safety, and reduce crime. Diversion and community corrections programs are one form of early intervention designed to protect young offenders from the negative effects of incarceration, and to reduce stigma and negative peer influence. However, only high-quality programs will produce the best results.

Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) is a method for improving police effectiveness through examining and acting on the underlying conditions that give rise to community problems. Responses emphasise prevention, go beyond the criminal justice system alone, and engage with other public agencies, the community and the private sector, where practical.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) publishes findings from the worldwide monitoring of the production, trafficking, interception and consumption of illicit drugs in its annual World drug report. The current issue reports on seizures of ATS from 104 countries and territories. The report shows that interception and seizure of ATS in 2004-05 was higher than a decade before, but followed a downward trend that began in 2000.

The International Crime Victimisation Survey (ICVS), which commenced in 1989, uses standardised survey instruments to gather internationally comparative data on criminal victimisation. The most recent survey in 2003-04 reported data from 30 mostly developed countries, including Australia. Burglary was one of the various crime types canvassed in the survey and its prevalence was estimated as the percentage of households that reported being burgled in the 12 months before the survey. In Australia, the prevalence of burglary was estimated at 2.5 percent.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Recorded crime - victims annual publication, the rate of reported sexual assault has increased in the period 1993-2003. In 1993 the rate was 69 recorded victims of sexual assault per 100,000 population; by 2003 the rate had steadily climbed to 92 reported victims per 100,000 persons. This increase does not necessarily reflect an increase in the prevalence of sexual assault, but is likely to be influenced by an increase in reporting incidents to police.