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The National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP) is responsible for monitoring the extent and nature of deaths in police, prison and juvenile custody. There were 39 deaths in prison custody in 2004, the same number as recorded in 2003. Overall there has been a decline in numbers of deaths in prison custody since 1995 but the trend lines vary for sentenced and unsentenced prisoners. In 2004 twenty-four deaths were of sentenced prisoners and the remaining 15 deaths were of unsentenced prisoners on remand.

The way in which crime is recorded varies across jurisdictions and over time, so comparing crime rates between countries (and, sometimes, within a country) is not necessarily an accurate indicator of differences in actual levels of crime in those countries. Similarly, crime rate trend data in a single jurisdiction are not necessarily reflective of trends in actual levels of crime. Changes in rates of recorded crime may be the result of changes in the way crime data are collected, or changes in the proportion of victims reporting criminal offences to police.

According to the Report on government services 2006, government expenditure on justice in Australia totalled $8.4 billion in 2004-05. Justice expenditure includes federal and state government expenditure on corrective services, civil courts, criminal courts and police services. This amounts to approximately nine percent of total spending by all Australian governments, a slight decrease on the 12 percent recorded in 1996-97, when the current format of reporting on government expenditure was adopted.

The National Crime and Safety Survey was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 1993, 1998, 2002 and 2005, as a mailback supplement to the April Labour Force Survey. According to the surveys, rates of household victimisation declined overall for break-in, attempted break-in, motor vehicle theft, and total household crime between 1993 and 2005.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' annual publication Recorded crime, victims, Australia presents national crime statistics on victims of selected offences recorded by police. The figure below shows the trends in victims of armed and unarmed robbery between 1993 and 2005. Robbery is defined as the unlawful taking of property from the immediate possession of a person or organisation, accompanied by the use, or threatened use, of force. Armed robbery includes instances where a weapon was used, or its use threatened.

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.