Search

Foreword | Carjacking literature is limited, and perceptions vary about the level of violence involved, diverse scenarios and the motivations of offenders. The media tends to overrepresent carjackings involving weapons and violence, although these are relatively rare incidents. Motivations range from instrumental triggers (where the car is used in some other crime) to acquisition for onselling the car or its parts. Similarly, methods vary from opportunistic to organised theft involving support.

Foreword | Transnational crime constitutes a challenge for even the most advanced industrial nations. The Pacific Islands are culturally, educationally and socially diverse, geographically isolated and sparsely populated. There is a degree of heterogeneity in their respective levels of governance, corruption and law enforcement capacity. Economic weaknesses and their impact upon infrastructure, poverty and general instability may increase the attractiveness of the islands to transnational crime.

Like any other economic market, the stolen goods market is largely driven by supply and demand. As such, property crime can be understood as a function of the ease of theft and the availability of a pool of willing buyers. The Market reduction approach (MRA) to reducing property crime focuses on shrinking the stolen goods market, by preventing supply and reducing the demand for stolen goods. Without an active market, disposal becomes difficult, risky and unrewarding. All of these factors have significant implications for an offender's willingness to engage in property crime.

Foreword | One in three Australian women experience domestic violence at some point during their adult life and it is women and their children who typically suffer the most severe short and long-term consequences of this violence.

This paper presents a brief overview of the key diversion programs for Indigenous women currently in operation in Australia, with reference to relevant developments in New Zealand and Canada. It was prepared against the background of recent research on Indigenous women's offending patterns and their over-representation in the criminal justice system (see Bartels 2010), which included the following key findings:

Foreword | This paper outlines the findings of a study that evaluated the processes of a Northern Territory Business Watch crime prevention program through a survey in 2002 of the members of a business association which managed the scheme. The results point to a severe lack of awareness about the program by association members, which in turn resulted in low levels of participation. In addition, members found it difficult to contribute sufficient time and resources to the scheme, and were largely unable to provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the program.

Foreword | The family is viewed by most people as providing a nurturing and loving environment. But for some, the family environment can be deadly. In Australia, almost two in five homicides occur between family members, with an average of 129 family homicides each year. The majority of family homicides occur between intimate partners (60 per cent), and three-quarters of intimate partner homicides involve males killing their female partners.

The connection between drug use and criminal activity is frequently debated in the community. The Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program, managed by the Australian Institute of Criminology, is focused on people who come into contact with the criminal justice system to provide specialised data that cannot be found in routine administrative data collections. As part of its quarterly survey, DUMA collects information on the age of first and regular use of seven classes of drugs, as well as the age of first arrest.

"Scoping studies and baseline data collection for an evaluation of best-practice policing interventions augmented by collaboration with emergency medicine and local community agencies to reduce alcohol-related assault".