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Foreword | Community justice programs such as the Red Hook Court in New York and the Neighbourhood Justice Centre in the City of Yarra in Melbourne represent an innovative approach to a range of crime and safety issues by engaging the community in identifying problems and generating solutions. However, as with many small-scale or specialist court programs, community courts have found it difficult to provide robust outcome evaluation data to demonstrate their effectiveness.

Foreword | Informal support systems play an important role in assisting primary victims cope with their experience post-crime. The experience of primary victims can have a vicarious impact on the individuals who comprise these support systems. This research explores the impact of child sexual assault on a sample of 26 non-offending parents, with a particular focus on examining the link between a parent’s thoughts and feelings about the assault and their subsequent support of, and assistance to, the primary victim.

Contents

About the editor

List of contributors

Introduction

Part A: Indigenous over-representation in the criminal justice system

1. Intergenerational incarceration in New South Wales: Characteristics of people in prison experiencing parental imprisonment
Marc Rémond, Reem Zeki, Kelly Austin, Julia Bowman, Jennifer Galouzis, Kelly-Anne Stewart and Elizabeth Sullivan

Australia recorded 279 homicide victims between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025. Published today, the Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC) Homicide in Australia 2024–25 report provides an overview of national homicide trends and emerging patterns in offending and victimisation.

The Transitional Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) Project today received a silver award in the community-led category of the 2023 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPAs).

The ACVPAs recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence before it occurs.

Don’t Let It Be Game Over violence prevention program today received a silver award in the community-led category of the 2021 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPA).

The ACVPA recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence.

Body Safety Australia’s Superstars program today received a bronze award in the community-led category of the 2021 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPA).

The ACVPA recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence.

The contemporary approach to the delivery of community crime prevention work is quite a sophisticated activity when viewed from the perspective of modern management practices. Typically, crime prevention programs are built on the idea of collaborative multi-agency action involving a number of different initiatives and participants. They use varying interventions that are implemented simultaneously or at least in a loosely ordered sequence. As a result, crime prevention programs will frequently operate through partnership arrangements directed at achieving shared outcomes.

ThinkUKnow Australia today received a bronze award in the police-led category of the 2023 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPAs).

The ACVPAs recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence before it occurs.

Not much is known about the risk and fear of different kinds of crime, including fraud, among older people. It is often thought that older people are more afraid of crime than others. However, research paints a more complex picture with certain groups being more fearful and vulnerable than others (Chivite-Matthews & Maggs 2002). When planning crime prevention and community safety interventions it is important to remember that there is considerable diversity among older people (see CRM 29).

Over the past 10 years, a range of crime prevention strategies have been developed and employed to reduce armed robbery. The main aims of these strategies have been to secure commercial premises to deter armed robbery attempts and to reduce the possible rewards from armed robbery. Combinations of different methods have been used, but they primarily involve techniques based on situational crime prevention.

Shoplifting is one of the most common crimes affecting small businesses in Australia. More than one in five businesses that participated in the 1999 Small Business Crime Survey reported being the victim of shoplifting. It has been estimated that shoplifting costs Australian businesses around $810 million annually.

The previous Bulletin reported on research showing how elemental analysis can be used to link matches with fire scenes and suspects. This issue looks at another recent study that demonstrates the potential for forensic science to assist arson investigators.

Foreword | Another Trends & Issues paper (Prenzler 2011) identified key dimensions of welfare fraud in Australia and some of the social issues associated with efforts to reduce fraud. The present paper makes a more detailed examination of detection and prevention strategies, reporting on a range of initiatives that have been introduced progressively over the last three decades. These initiatives appear to be consistent with trends in comparable jurisdictions.