Search

What is domestic violence?

Children and ICT

The uptake of information and communication technologies (ICT) has led to new criminal activities and new ways of committing traditional crimes. This is the first in a series of high tech crime briefs looking at the impact of ICT on criminal activities. High tech or ICT-related crime is divided into offences where ICT is the object or target of an offence and where ICT is a tool for committing an offence.

Foreword | Problem-oriented justice seeks to incorporate innovative court practices to tackle offenders' behaviour and problems associated with offending. Over the last decade, the primary means of implementing such practices has been through the development of specialty courts. This paper presents an overview of the challenges associated with implementing aspects of specialty courts in the mainstream criminal justice system. The key issues explored are the need to promote equity of access, resourcing and the role of the judicial officer.

Foreword | Bushfire arson is an important issue in Australia, but studies analysing its prevalence and distribution are sparse and have focused on isolated areas or specific data collections.

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).

Foreword | Indigenous participation in sentencing procedures has been occurring informally in remote communities for some time. During the late 1990s, formalisation of this practice began in urban areas with the advent of Indigenous sentencing and Circle Courts. Formalisation has also occurred in remote areas. The aim has been to make court processes more culturally appropriate, to engender greater trust between Indigenous communities and judicial officers, and to permit a more informal and open exchange of information about defendants and their cases.

In Australia, three defendants in two cases have been charged and prosecuted for 'slavery' or 'trafficking in persons' under the Criminal Code (Cth), in circumstances where the crimes have allegedly occurred in contexts other than the sex industry. These cases tend to be described as instances of 'labour trafficking', even though the parameters of this phrase are far from settled (see further AIC 2009). This brief describes the progression of these two cases through the Australian court system, with varying outcomes.

Foreword | Official crime statistics suggest that young people aged 24 years and under make the greatest contribution to a population’s overall crime levels. A decline in the proportion of the population aged 24 years or under should therefore reduce the population’s crime levels. Yet the impact of structural ageing—the shift in population age structure from ‘young’ to ‘old’—in Australia is ‘one frequently overlooked influence on long-term crime trends’ (Weatherburn 2001: 2).

Foreword | Approximately one in four women in most Western nations are at risk of becoming a victim of intimate partner violence (IPV). Interventions for IPV victims have shown to be significant in preventing negative outcomes. Using data from the International Violence Against Women Survey, this paper examines predictors of help-seeking by IPV victims and considers whether such responses are influenced by the severity of abuse experienced.

Foreword | In recent years, it has been recognised that child complainants in the criminal justice system can experience difficulties over and above those of other complainants and that children can experience the court process as extremely traumatising. This can be exacerbated if children are complainants in child sexual offence matters and if they have to give evidence against a family member. This paper has three primary aims. First, it outlines the major factors that contribute to making court processes harrowing for child complainants.

Foreword | This paper examines the causes of wrongful imprisonment, the nature of losses and the applicability of international approaches and conventions. Definitions of wrongful conviction vary internationally, as do the circumstances and amount of compensation. Australian states and territories can make discretionary ex gratia payments, although determination of compensation amounts is unclear. Compensation levels for wrongful conviction in Australia are not as generous as tortious claims.

Foreword | Women's drug use is believed to be a defining factor in their participation in crime and it is argued that the severity of women's drug use is more closely related to their criminality than it is for men, particularly for prostitution and property crime. Women's drug use and offending are different from men's.

Foreword | Youth offenders are complex and challenging for policymakers and practitioners alike and face high risks for long-term disadvantage and social marginalisation. In many cases, this marginalisation from the mainstream begins in early life, particularly in the classroom, where they have difficulty both with language/literacy tasks and with the interpersonal demands of the classroom.

Foreword | We know that for some crimes, like human trafficking, it is difficult to secure prosecutions. It is also the case that these kind of crimes are difficult to detect. Human trafficking presents different challenges from domestic crimes, like sexual assault, because of its often transnational nature and the potential involvement of a network of facilitators in a number of countries.

Foreword | This paper reports findings from statistical analyses of Indigeneity and lower court sentencing in New South Wales and South Australia from 1998 to 2008. The aim was to explore the probability of Indigenous versus non-Indigenous defendants receiving a prison sentence over time, while controlling for other key sentencing determinates (ie sex, age, criminal history, seriousness of current offence, plea, bail status).