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Sport and physical activity programs can have a positive impact on young people's behaviour, and may provide an important vehicle for their personal and social development. A project funded by the Australian Sports Commission, and conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology, identified 606 programs for young people in Australia that focused on sport and physical activity.

Between 1999 and 2006, a total of 24,936 police detainees were surveyed as part of the Australian Institute of Criminology's Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program. Of these, 1,689 detainees (7%) reported living on the street, having no fixed address or living in crisis accommodation at the time of their apprehension.

Each year since 2006, the Australian Institute of Criminology has conducted an online survey on behalf of the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT) to assess consumer fraud experiences of those who choose to participate. The surveys have sought responses from interested people between January and March each year, asking about their experiences in the preceding 12 months.

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Key findings

• The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) interviewed 842 detainees about their first experience of drug use as part of the AIC’s Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program. Detainees were asked to recount the reasons why they first tried drugs, as well as why they continued to use them. Those detainees who had abstained were asked to nominate the factors that were important in their decision to not use drugs.

Foreword | This paper models the connection between the rate of terrorist events and the occurrence of counter-terrorism interventions in order to examine the relative effectiveness of the interventions.

Foreword | Restorative justice conferencing for young offenders is a legislated response to youth offending, which has been in place in all Australian states and territories for nearly two decades. Restorative justice conferences are meetings between young offenders, their victims and supporters to discuss the offence, its impact and what the young person can do to repair harms caused by the offending behaviour.

Contents

• The nature of domestic violence
• The extent of the problem
• The costs of domestic violence
• Community attitudes
• The victims
• The perpetrators
• Legislating against domestic violence
• Policing domestic violence

It is estimated that there are approximately 25,000 licence-holding private agents in Australia. In a study recently published by the Australian Institute of Criminology, an attempt was made to gauge the nature of their involvement with law enforcement. Interviewees claimed that they were able to obtain concrete evidence in 70 to 90 per cent of the cases they investigated. The most pertinent legal and ethical issue faced by private investigators related to breaches of privacy. This included physical trespassing, along with gaining sensitive information about people.

Currently, there is no empirical work in Australia to allow us to determine the number of gangs or the number of gang members. A paper published recently by the Australian Institute of Criminology examines some of the complex issues surrounding youth gangs in Australia. It considers what gangs are, what sorts of behaviour they engage in, how they are structured, how they change over time, and how they form and disappear. International research has increasingly emphasised that gang formation is a social process involving complex forms of membership, transformation and disintegration.

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has today released a paper revealing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply and demand of cannabis in Australia. Jointly written by AIC researchers Laura Doherty, Tom Sullivan and Alexandra Voce, the report outlines who is most likely to use cannabis during the pandemic and what effect the pandemic had on cannabis supply.

AIC Deputy Director Dr Rick Brown said the findings reveal first hand insights into why people use cannabis and why some individuals have increased their use since the pandemic began.

According to Crown Prosecutors interviewed for a recent Australian Institute of Criminology study, a number of factors determine whether to proceed with or discontinue an adult sexual assault case. The most important of these is credibility, which encompasses various personal characteristics, including whether the victim is genuine and trustworthy, for example, not embellishing facts such as how much she or he had been drinking. Perceptions of credibility are also influenced by demeanour, such as a victim being calm and not argumentative towards the defence.