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Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, a publication from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, presents national crime statistics relating to victims of a selected range of offences that have been recorded by police. Between 2001 and 2002, the proportion of murders, attempted murders, kidnapping/abductions and robberies that involved a weapon decreased. In 2002, attempted murder was the offence most likely to involve either a firearm (22 per cent) or knife (35 per cent) whereas sexual assault was the offence least likely to involve a weapon.

A report titled The Female Criminal: An Overview of Women's Drug Use and Offending Behaviour released by the Australian Institute of Criminology, provides an overview of Australian and international research on the links between women's drug use and criminal behaviour. Women's drug use is a defining factor in their participation in crime, in that the severity of their drug use is more closely related to their criminality than it is for men, particularly for activities such as prostitution and property crime.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has recently released their annual publication on victims of crime. Recorded crime - victims, Australia presents statistics on victims of a selected range of offences recorded by state and territory police. Overall the number of recorded victims for most offence categories declined in 2003 from the previous year, with the total number of robbery victims decreasing slightly from 20 989 in 2002 to 19 719 in 2003.

The Australian Productivity Commission has calculated that between 2001–02 and 2006–07, the number bushfires in Australia varied from approximately 46,000 to 62,000 per year, with an average of nearly 54,000 fires per year (SGRSP 2008). This agrees quite closely with the average of nearly 52,000 fires per year calculated by the Australian Institute of Criminology (Bryant 2008) using data from fire agencies from 1995–06 to 2005–06. It is estimated that 50 percent of fires are either deliberately lit or suspicious in origin as shown in Figure 1.

Loss of human life and serious injury

Loss of life and serious injury. It has been calculated that 552 people have perished in bushfires in the past century (Haynes et al 2008) making it one of the leading causes of deaths from disasters. More people are injured from bushfires than all other natural disasters combined (AIC 2004).

Official statistics have shown that people smuggling has increased worldwide, including to Australia. A paper presented at the Australian Institute of Criminology's 4th National Outlook Symposium on Crime in Australia, People Smuggling: Recent Trends and Changing Responses, provides a snapshot of the general trends emerging in the last few years. Figures recorded by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs show that the number of illegal entrants into Australia over the last three years has increased from 1,707 during 1997-98 to 5,870 in 1999-2000.

A study of 5,000 Australians aged between 12 and 20 has found that up to one quarter have witnessed physical domestic violence against their mother or stepmother. In the study, physical domestic violence was defined as including 'threw something at', 'tried to hit', 'hit in defence', 'hit when unprovoked', 'threatened with knife or gun' and 'used knife or gun'. The study is the largest research project of its kind in Australia.

The 10th annual Australian Violence Prevention Awards were announced in Canberra on 18 October 2001. The two national winners were the projects When Love Hurts and the Port Augusta Aboriginal Families Project. Each winner received $10,000. The project Safer Times Round Albury-Wodonga for Women (STRAWS) won the Special Drugs and Alcohol Category Award and $10,000.

According to a report released by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR), the recent heroin drought in Australia has resulted in dramatic drops in heroin use and expenditure as well as in the number of heroin overdoses. The BOCSAR report cites results of urinalysis testing of arrestees in Bankstown and Parramatta, conducted as part of the Australian Institute of Criminology's Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) project.

Most studies investigating motives for arson have noted the phenomenon of fires being lit by the very people entrusted by the community with fighting them. The incidence of malicious firesetting by firefighters is invariably portrayed in the literature as quite rare, although direct research is limited. The NSW police service's Strikeforce Tronto investigated some 1,500 suspicious fires from 2001 to 2004. It resulted in 50 people being charged, 11 of them volunteer firefighters.

This Bulletin continues the analysis of bushfire investigation data provided by the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS). For this Bulletin, an examination was conducted of fires determined by the RFS to have been the result of burning activity or machinery and equipment. Together, these types of fires accounted for just over 11 per cent of those investigated. As for deliberate fires, the cause determinations were analysed with the rationale given for the determination. More than one causal factor was noted in some cases.

Bushfire arson is problematic across all states and territories of Australia. While the vast majority of deliberately lit fires are typically small, the cumulative impact on the community and environment is significant: adversely affecting the quality of lives of people within close proximity; potentially endangering property via ember attacks; wasting valuable firefighting resources; and drastically impacting on the health and biodiversity of remnant vegetation in or near urban areas which have not evolved to cope with the frequency of fires to which they are subjected.

It is estimated that between 25 and 50 percent of bushfires attended by fire authorities every year in Australia are the result of deliberate lightings (Davies 1997; Weber 1999; Willis 2004). Although the total area burned by deliberate lightings is commonly less than for fires started by lightning (Kapardis, Rawson & Antonopoulos 1983) and, as noted in last month's bulletin, many are not intended to cause harm, the cumulative effect of such firesetting activities is significant for both the community and the environment.

The relationship between fire and biota in Australian ecosystems is complex. Fire plays an integral role in the rejuvenation and hence survival of many species; variably acting to clear land, and promote germination, palatable new growth, more widespread foraging by herbivorous fauna, and potentially more efficient hunting by carnivorous species. Fire acts as a mediator in what are continually evolving ecosystems, being both a destroyer and bringer of new life.

Between 43 and 49 percent of fires attended by fire agencies annually in Australia occur in vegetation (SCRGS 2006). Analysis by the AIC of fire agency data from across Australia indicates that vegetation fires are a large problem in urban environments. For example, in NSW where fire services are most clearly delineated between urban, rural and land management agencies: