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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.

In 2000 the Northern Territory recorded its lowest homicide victimisation rate (3.06 per 100,000 people) since 1989. A Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice paper, "Homicide in Australia 1999-2000" provides a statistical snapshot of police recorded homicides in the last year, as well as information on trends over the last 11 years and jurisdictional comparisons. Trends show that the homicide rate for Australia has stayed remarkably constant. The highest rate recorded over the last 11 years was 2 per 100,000 and the lowest rate was 1.7 per 100,000.

A report released by the Australian Institute of Criminology has identified alleged motives for homicide in 2000-2001. Findings from the Homicide in Australia: 2000-2001 National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) Annual Report show that the majority of female homicide victims were killed as a result of domestic-related altercations (for example disputes over custody of children, termination of relationship).

In November 2002, the Australian Institute of Criminology released its annual Facts and Figures publication, a quick reference booklet that details the major crime statistics for the preceding year. The statistics on violent crime include homicide, assault, sexual assault and robbery. Rates of violent crime in 2001 were higher than in previous years. The rate of assault has increased steadily from 563 victims per 100,000 people in 1995 to 779 per 100,000 people in 2001. In 2001 the rate of robberies reached 136 per 100,000 people which is the highest recorded since 1995.

The Australian Institute of Criminology's Facts and Figures 2002 publication shows that robbery has increased steadily since 1995. Police recorded 26,565 victims of robbery during 2001, a 14 per cent increase on the number recorded in 2000. Of the robberies recorded in 2001, 59 per cent were unarmed, and 41 per cent were armed. The number of both armed and unarmed robberies between 1995 and 2001 display correlated trends. Both peaked in March 2001, when there were 1,112 armed robberies and 1,572 unarmed robberies.

Most studies investigating motives for arson have noted the phenomenon of fires being lit by the very people entrusted by the community with fighting them. The incidence of malicious firesetting by firefighters is invariably portrayed in the literature as quite rare, although direct research is limited. The NSW police service's Strikeforce Tronto investigated some 1,500 suspicious fires from 2001 to 2004. It resulted in 50 people being charged, 11 of them volunteer firefighters.

Profiling: '... an educated attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific information as to the type of individual who committed a certain crime...' (Geberth 1996: 710).

Although there has been international research on the reoffending of arson offenders, published data on alleged arsonists in Australia are limited to police statistics on arson charges. There is no published Australian research on the recidivism of arsonists or bushfire arsonists. This bulletin reports on 1,099 arson and 133 bushfire arson defendants who appeared in NSW courts between 2001 and 2006 ^(a). The typical NSW firesetter was male (89%), and young (mean age 27 years), this was the same for arsonists and bushfire arsonists.

Some communities have a higher propensity for arson than others, and the demographic characteristics of each community seem to contribute. For some time, research has endeavoured to uncover those demographic variables associated with bushfire arson to inform the targeting of community-based programs to combat firelighting as well as the content of those programs.

in: The Age, 23 April 2001, I.T.1 pp. 1,12.

Ever since human beings began to claim ownership over property, other human beings have sought to take it from them. In the past quarter of a century, with the arrival of digital technology, both property and theft have taken on new forms.

Money, music, text and video are now commonly stored and transferred electronically in the form of a long series of zeroes and ones. And they can be stolen with a laptop computer from one's bedroom.