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Foreword | It is generally accepted that a person’s living situation, in particular their experience of homelessness and housing stress, can have both long-lasting and wide-ranging consequences. For criminal justice practitioners, the task of limiting homelessness and preventing crime remain key policy priorities in need of ongoing and integrated research.

Foreword | Estimating the extent to which criminal activity can be attributed to substance use is a challenging but important task. Quantifying the nexus between drugs and crime contributes to a robust assessment of the cost and burden of alcohol and drug abuse to the Australian community. For the criminal justice system in particular, drug crime estimates, such as those presented in this paper, help to direct more effective targeting of diversion and treatment policies.

Summary report of the seminar is attached.

Acknowledgements

This Australian Institute of Criminology would like to acknowledge ACT Policing and their partnership in undertaking this project. Without the assistance of ACT Policing, this project would not have been possible.

The Australian Institute of Criminology would also like to acknowledge those licensees who participated throughout various stages of the project. Their participation demonstrates that the industry is also committed to addressing alcohol-related problems in the Australian Capital Territory.

Intelligence-led policing is defined as the application of criminal intelligence analysis as a rigorous decision making tool to facilitate crime reduction and prevention through effective policing strategies. Three structures (criminal environment, intelligence and the decision maker) and three processes (interpret, influence and impact) are identified as necessary for an intelligence-led policing model to work. The first stage of the model is being able to interpret the criminal environment.

Unlike most other criminal offences, sex offences usually occur within personal settings with few, if any corroborating witnesses, so a conviction may rely on the victim's word against that of the offender (Queensland. Crime and Misconduct Commission 2003). If an offender confesses to an investigator, three important advantages may result:

Key findings

• In recognition of the need for ongoing monitoring of new or less common drug types, the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), as part of the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program, interviewed 824 police detainees about their knowledge of and experience with mephedrone, GHB, Ketamine and Rohypnol.

Introduction