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Foreword | Unfettered global communication through the internet has facilitated a massive intrusion of unsolicited commercial email messages, commonly known as spam. Currently accounting for as much as 65 per cent of all email, spam leads to productivity costs for businesses each year and is increasingly being used for the commission of crime. This paper discusses the increasing sophistication of the techniques used to obtain email addresses, and outlines and critiques a selection of legislation which aims to reduce or remove spam.

ThinkUKnow Australia today received a bronze award in the police-led category of the 2023 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPAs).

The ACVPAs recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence before it occurs.

Nuisance or crime?

Foreword | Drawing on data from the Australian Business Assessment of Computer User Security (ABACUS) survey, this paper examines a range of factors that may influence businesses’ likelihood of being victimised by a computer security incident. It has been suggested that factors including business size, industry sector, level of outsourcing, expenditure on computer security functions and types of computer security tools and/or policies used may influence the probability of particular businesses experiencing such incidents.

Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) has been in operation in Australia since 1983, with a primary focus on reducing burglary, but its effectiveness has been questioned by both Australian and overseas research. An Australian study found NHW had limited value in combating burglary, leading to only modest decreases or having a displacement effect (Fleming 2005). Recently the Victorian police conducted a review of the program in their state (De Ridder & Johns 2007). NHW coordinators and volunteers were identified and sent terms of reference on six areas.

Foreword | The Internet has increased the range, volume and accessibility of sexually abusive imagery, including child pornography. Child pornography depicts the sexual or sexualised physical abuse of children under 16 years of age. Australia has joined many other nations in an international effort to combat this multi-faceted global menace that combines both heavily networked and highly individualised criminal behaviour. This paper examines the typology of online child pornography offending, as well as law enforcement responses to the problem.

The Creating Futures Justice Program today received a silver award in the community-led category of the 2023 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPAs).

The ACVPAs recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence before it occurs.

Foreword | Information and communications technology (ICT) may be the target of criminal activity, as well as a tool used to facilitate criminal acts.

Foreword | Drug and alcohol use have been found to be important correlates of criminal offending. The Drug Use Careers of Offenders (DUCO) studies found high levels of drug and alcohol dependency among women, men and juveniles incarcerated in Australian prisons. Offenders also reported a range of negative life experiences related to their drug and alcohol abuse.

Foreword | Indigenous over-representation in the justice system is a challenge facing Australian society. Recently, it has been suggested that increased use of diversionary processes could reduce Indigenous over-representation. Reported in this paper are the findings of a project examining the 1990 offender cohorts’ contact with the Queensland juvenile justice system.

This research examines the effect child maltreatment has on juvenile offending. This relationship has implications for understanding criminal behaviour as well as implications for child protection initiatives and crime prevention strategies. Recently, the field of developmental criminology has focused attention on the impacts of exposure to risk and protective factors at different points in a child's development (Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber 1996). Of particular interest are the factors that lead to the onset and end of criminal behaviour.

Bushfires arson, like structural arson, is a strongly patterned activity. These patterns seem to be mainly determined by the interplay between socioeconomic and environmental dynamics. Since the fundamentals of these two factors change slowly, bushfire arson tends to happen at the same time and in the same place every year.

• Annex A : Taxi driver safety study: retrospective questionnaire, drivers (PDF 27kB)
• Annex B : Taxi driver safety study: driver interview questionnaire (PDF 20kB)

Information and communications technologies (ICT) have created a new space of opportunity where children can learn, play and develop, but may also risk becoming the victims of crime or engage in illegal behaviour themselves. The types of offences relevant to online child exploitation include producing, possessing and disseminating child pornography, grooming children for the purposes of sexual contact, and displaying live images of child sexual abuse.

Scrap metal theft is a lucrative and attractive venture for thieves and a significant issue for the construction industry (Jones 2008). It appears to be facilitated by a largely unregulated scrap metal recycling industry, the relative ease of theft due to the openness and accessibility of construction sites, and encouraged by escalating metal prices. The price of copper, for example, has doubled since 2005.