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What is antisocial behaviour?

Online fraud poses a substantial threat to the financial and overall wellbeing of Australians. An estimated $8m to $10m is sent overseas every month by Australians as a result of dishonest online invitations (Bradley 2013). The latest report of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC 2015) indicates that Australians reported the loss of almost $82m to consumer fraud in 2014; this estimate is based only on reports made to the ACCC and excludes reports made to other organisations and the many cases that are not officially reported.

Foreword | While opportunistic crime in Australia's fishing industry has existed for a long time, there is increasing and widespread concern about the extent and scope of illegal activity. High-value, low-volume fish products (such as abalone, shark fin and seahorse) are vulnerable to organised criminal exploitation. Without adequate controls, the viability of stocks (and the industry itself) may be placed in jeopardy.

The Maranguka Youth Support Model today received a gold award in the community-led category of the 2023 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPAs).

The ACVPAs recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence before it occurs.

Fraud and internet crime are recognised as important issues for governments and private businesses worldwide. An area of growing concern is the impact of criminal activity on householders who use the internet. Householders use the internet at home for various purposes including work, education, leisure, communication, accessing government services and managing the household. The internet provides the means to perform a variety of specific tasks such as:

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has announced important new funding that will support Australian academics to undertake cutting edge crime and justice research.

The First Nations 'In-Community' Protective Services Officer Program today received a silver award in the police-led category of the 2023 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPAs).

The ACVPAs recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence before it occurs.

Today the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) released the latest findings from the National Homicide Monitoring Program. This includes both the Homicide in Australia 2021–22 and Homicide in Australia 2022–23 reports following enhanced processes to ensure timely release of these important figures.

Foreword | In this paper, an overview is presented of recent data on the carriage and use of knives. Analysis of the data indicated an increase in the use of knives as a proportion of all homicides, although the number of homicides remained relatively constant. The proportionate use of knives in robberies, by contrast, remained fairly constant, while the number of robberies decreased dramatically.

Foreword | Research from Australia and overseas consistently demonstrates that the effectiveness of many crime prevention initiatives is reduced by a continual lack of access to adequate crime prevention knowledge and technical skills. In particular, the internationalisation of crime has highlighted the need for renewed effort aimed at increasing the efficiency of knowledge transfer, skills development, project and program management ability, and performance measurement and evaluation capacity.

Foreword | Courts in the United States, Europe and Australia have in recent years experimented with sanctions which require the computer of an offender convicted of high tech crimes to be forfeited, or which seek to prohibit the offender from undertaking certain, or all, computer-related activities like possessing or using computers or gaining access to the internet.

Today the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has released updated statistics to the deaths in custody dashboard. The dashboard presents quarterly deaths in custody data for the April–June quarter, the year to date (January–June) and the last five years.

Foreword | Public policy initiatives to manage parental child sexual offending have been hindered by the absence of risk instruments sensitive to unique factors associated with the distinctive profile of this core group of offenders. Using an Australian sample of 172 male parental offenders referred to community-based treatment designed for low-risk offenders, this study retrospectively compared risk levels and reoffence rates of offenders accepted into treatment (46%) with those who returned to court for standard criminal prosecution (54%).

Contents

About the editor

List of contributors

Introduction

Part A: COVID-19

1. The prevalence of domestic violence among women during the COVID-19 pandemic (Statistical Bulletin no. 28)
Hayley Boxall, Anthony Morgan and Rick Brown

Foreword | It is well-documented that crime rates and the prevalence of mental illness are both higher in areas with pronounced levels of social disorganisation. Far less is known about the association of disadvantaged community conditions with criminal behaviour and mental illness.