This policy sets out how personal information held by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) is managed and protected in compliance with the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
This policy sets out how we collect, use, disclose and store personal information, including sensitive information, and how you may access and correct personal information that we hold.
Gamblers can often resort to criminal activity to support their chronic habit, fraud being one means of obtaining funds (Dohley 2000; Sakurai & Smith 2003). In Australia, it is estimated that 10 to 25 percent of problem gamblers commit gambling-related offences (Lahn 2005). A study of offenders on community corrections orders in the Australian Capital Territory found that, of those who reported problem gambling, 26 percent admitted that it contributed to their offending, and 46 percent said they had obtained money illegally to pay for gambling or related debts (Lahn 2005).
Night patrols, in their various forms, are a common feature of Indigenous communities throughout Australia. They take on various names, roles and functions depending on the needs of the communities from which they operate. They may be known as street patrols, community patrols, foot or bare-foot patrols, mobile assistance patrols or street beat programs. They may provide a safe means of transport home or to refuges and safe houses for people at risk of offending or victimisation. Typically this includes young people or intoxicated adults.
Foreword | In the past decade, there has been an increasing reliance on electronic means of transferring funds for personal and business purposes. One recent development has been the emergence of plastic cards with the capacity to store value electronically, which can be used for a range of retail transactions. With the advent of comprehensive anti-money laundering laws throughout the developed world, criminals are turning to alternative ways of moving funds across borders to circumvent reporting and detection systems.
Foreword | The issue of juvenile drug use and crime is of interest to a wide section of society. This paper examines the drug-taking patterns of a group of juveniles who were detained by police and interviewed as part of the Drug Use Monitoring Australia (DUMA) project. Most juveniles (around two-thirds) also gave a urine sample that was analysed for six classes of drugs. This paper reports on the 493 juveniles whose details are in the DUMA database.
Foreword | Information and communications technology (ICT) may be the target of criminal activity, as well as a tool used to facilitate criminal acts.
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.
Erratum
Mouzos J & West D 2007. An examination of serial murder in Australia. Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 346. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.
People smuggling and trafficking in persons have had a considerable public profile in the past decade. Both involve the movement of people and the difference between them is not always well understood by the general public. This brief examines the difference between people smuggling and trafficking in persons by looking at the variations in principle and practice.
'Phishing' is a term that describes a way in which a person using the internet may be tricked into giving their personal identification information or banking and finance details to a criminal. Once this information has been obtained by a phisher, they may sell it to another person or use it to commit identity fraud. Internet users need to be aware that credit card details or log-in details used to access finances and services online are valuable and can be misused by others. Phishing is not limited to email-scams.
Foreword | Between 1984 and 2004 the proportion of remanded prisoners rose from 12 to 20 percent of the total prisoner population, and the rate of prisoners remanded into custody tripled. In an attempt to identify the factors associated with high and low remand rates the researchers undertook a detailed study of Victoria (which has comparatively low remand rates) and South Australia (which has comparatively high remand rates).
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.