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Foreword | Responding to juvenile offending is a unique policy and practice challenge. While a substantial proportion of crime is perpetuated by juveniles, most juveniles will ‘grow out’ of offending and adopt law-abiding lifestyles as they mature. This paper outlines the factors (biological, psychological and social) that make juvenile offenders different from adult offenders and that necessitate unique responses to juvenile crime.

Aggressive driving behaviour is increasingly being seen as a characteristic of modern urban life which can result in crimes of violence. The Victorian Parliament's Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee recently conducted an inquiry into road violence and found that it was caused by the interaction between a mixture of person-related, situational, car-related and cultural factors, precipitated by a single triggering event. Solutions to the commission of violence involve strategies that address each of the causal antecedents. These can be divided into three inter-related categories:

As AICrime reduction matters no. 72 highlighted, problem gamblers sometimes turn to fraud to fund their habit. It is therefore likely that early-intervention strategies to prevent problem gambling will prevent some fraud.

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

The Australian Institute of Criminology has recently released the results of the 2001-2002 National Farm Crime Survey, the second annual survey on farm crime. This research was funded by the National Crime Prevention Program, Attorney General's Department. A total of 1309 broadacre and dairy farms were surveyed about their experiences of crime between 1 July 2001 and 30 June 2002. Overall, 13 per cent of these farms experienced crime, a slight decrease from the comparable number that experienced farm crime in the first survey.

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• Key terms and definitions
• Abstract
• Executive summary
  • Methodology
  • A review of initiatives
  • A review of the evidence
  • Discussion
• Introduction
  • The link between CSAM offending and contact sexual offending
  • Offending and harmful behaviours among specific populations
  • Efforts to target CSAM offending in Australia
  • Findings from earlier reviews
  • The current study

Indigenous people are over-represented at all stages of the criminal justice system in Australia. There are many suggested explanations for this, ranging from enduring institutionalised racism and differential treatment across the criminal justice system, to the effects of significant socio-economic disadvantage and actual higher levels of offending behaviour. This CRM summarises a number of the most important contemporary suggestions for helping to reduce offending in Indigenous communities.

Not much is known about the risk and fear of different kinds of crime, including fraud, among older people. It is often thought that older people are more afraid of crime than others. However, research paints a more complex picture with certain groups being more fearful and vulnerable than others (Chivite-Matthews & Maggs 2002). When planning crime prevention and community safety interventions it is important to remember that there is considerable diversity among older people (see CRM 29).

For businesses that operate outside normal trading hours, staff training is a primary strategy for armed robbery prevention, alongside ongoing improvements to technological security measures. Australian police websites provide prevention information based on the 'crime triangle' approach, which addresses the three aspects of an offender's willingness to commit a robbery: a suitable target, a motivated offender and the absence of a capable guardian (Cohen & Felson 1979).

Foreword | Although Australia has achieved significant reductions in drink driving since the 1980s, it continues to be a leading cause of road fatalities and injuries. A range of countermeasures have been used to address drink driving, although their effectiveness can be affected by a range of implementation issues.