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The National Armed Robbery Monitoring Program (NARMP) began in 2003, with the goal of providing information that would permit the detailed, national-level exploration of armed robbery, including trends in weapon use. The data, based on incidences of reported armed robbery, are collected by police forces in the jurisdictions and passed on to the Australian Institute of Criminology, which administers the NARMP. The chart below shows a breakdown of victims of armed robbery in 2004 by selected locations where the robbery occurred, and type of weapon used.

Every year the Report on government services (SCPGS) provides data on perceptions of crime within the community. People are asked one question about which crimes they believe to be a problem or somewhat of a problem in their state or territory, and a second question about perceived crime levels in their local neighbourhood. The figure below shows the percentage who identified illicit drugs, property crimes and violent crimes as a problem over the past five years.

The Australian Institute of Criminology's National Firearms Theft Monitoring Program was established in 2006 to examine all incidents of firearms theft reported to police. In the program's first annual report, for 2004-05, almost 1,500 firearms, or less than 0.1 of one percent of all registered firearms, were reported as stolen in 668 incidents (Borzycki & Mouzos 2007). This represents a downward trend since earlier research (Mouzos 2002). The figure below shows the majority of rifles (80%), shotguns (82%) and handguns (60%) were stolen from private residential premises.

In 2003 the Australian Institute of Criminology randomly surveyed 1,078 small businesses across Australia in five business types (florists, computer retailers, booksellers, recorded music retailers and toy and game retailers) to identify the proportion of these businesses trading online, the extent to which online traders had experienced online credit card fraud in 2001 and 2002, and the losses associated with such fraud. Overall, 32 per cent of businesses had been the victim of online credit card fraud, with 51 per cent of traders experiencing more than one incident over the two years.

Crime victimisation surveys provide an important complement to crime statistics collected by police and courts. Key results from the Australian component of the 2004 International Crime Victimisation Survey (ICVS) show that 52 per cent of Australians had experienced at least one incident of crime in the five years prior to the survey, a drop from 55 per cent reported in the previous ICVS in 2000. Seventeen per cent of Australians were victims of crime in the preceding 12 months, down from 24 per cent in 2000.

Serious Fraud in Australia and New Zealand is a report presenting the results of a study by the Australian Institute of Criminology and PricewaterhouseCoopers of serious fraud cases that went to court in Australia and New Zealand in 1998 and 1999. There were 155 completed files identified from police and prosecution agencies throughout Australia and New Zealand involving serious fraud offences (generally involving sums in excess of $100,000). The general profile of the 183 persons convicted of serious fraud offences was that they tended to be in their mid-40s and male.

The Australian Institute of Criminology and PricewaterhouseCoopers' report Serious Fraud in Australia and New Zealand presents the results of serious fraud cases that went to court in Australia and New Zealand in 1998 and 1999. There were 155 completed files identified from police and prosecution agencies throughout Australia and New Zealand involving serious fraud offences (generally involving sums in excess of $100,000). The highest level of risk in the private sector concerned prudential failures to do with the provision of finance and credit.

Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, a publication from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, presents national crime statistics relating to victims of a selected range of offences that have been recorded by police. Between 2001 and 2002, the proportion of murders, attempted murders, kidnapping/abductions and robberies that involved a weapon decreased. In 2002, attempted murder was the offence most likely to involve either a firearm (22 per cent) or knife (35 per cent) whereas sexual assault was the offence least likely to involve a weapon.

Public perception of the levels of crime are based on the various sources of statistics that provide this information. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released a paper that compares crime victimisation statistics from a number of sources published in Australia. The prevalence rate of crime victimisation in Australia differs based on the methodology used for data collection. The General Social Survey is an interviewer based survey conducted by the ABS. This survey found that nine per cent of respondents were victims of assault.

The Australian Institute of Criminology's Australian crime: facts and figures 2003 publication is a compilation of the most recently available national information on crime in Australia. The publication covers different types of recorded crime such as homicide, assault, robbery, unlawful entry with intent and motor vehicle theft. Motor vehicle theft is the taking of a motor vehicle unlawfully or without permission. There were 113,389 motor vehicles reported to police as stolen in 2002, with 884 vehicles stolen per 100,000 registered cars.

A report titled Recidivism of sexual assault offenders: rates, risk factors and treatment efficacy provides an overview of Australian and international research on sexual, violent and general recidivism among sex offenders. Despite the assumption that sexual offenders are particularly prone to reoffend, reconviction rates for sex crimes are relatively low. Sexual offenders are similar to the general offender population in terms of their criminal histories and their sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics.

The capacity of professionals working in child protection to do their job effectively is affected by their morale, competence and staff turnover. There is growing concern that these professionals are subjected to increasing levels of violence, threats and intimidation. The Australian Institute of Criminology has recently released a report on the key findings from an Australian study into the experiences of violence, threats and intimidation by professional groups working in child protection.

Joint research by the Australian Institute of Criminology and South Australia Police Major Crime Investigation Branch has examined 163 attempted and completed contract killings in Australia between the period 1 July 1989 and 30 June 2002. The research showed that the motive of the instigator varied between attempted and completed contract killings. The most common motive for attempted contract killings was the 'dissolution of a relationship' (n = 28) followed by 'money' (n = 17) and 'silencing of witnesses' (n = 17).

Recorded crime - victims, Australia, a publication from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, presents national crime statistics relating to victims of a selected range of offences that have been recorded by police. In 2003, a decrease in the number of victims was evident for most types of crimes, in particular unlawful entry with intent (UEWI), motor vehicle theft and other theft. Between 2001 and 2003, the number of victims of motor vehicle theft has decreased by 29 per cent, down from a peak of 139 894 victims in 2001 to 98 813 victims in 2003.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has recently released their annual publication on victims of crime. Recorded crime - victims, Australia presents statistics on victims of a selected range of offences recorded by state and territory police. Overall the number of recorded victims for most offence categories declined in 2003 from the previous year, with the total number of robbery victims decreasing slightly from 20 989 in 2002 to 19 719 in 2003.