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Foreword | Identity-related crime affects all sectors of society - and robust measures are needed to guard against its increase. There are various mechanisms used by organisations to verify the evidence of a person's identity and an important goal is to ensure that any system is as effective and efficient as possible. This paper provides a framework for assessing the competing factors that decision makers need to address when determining the effectiveness and efficiency of any proposed identity checking system.

Foreword | Cash in transit (CIT) armed robbery is an offence that can cause serious stress and danger to individuals who become victims while doing their job. To compound the emotional, psychological and physical damage CIT armed robbery can cause victims, it often causes considerable financial loss to the companies targeted.

Foreword | In the past decade, there has been an increasing reliance on electronic means of transferring funds for personal and business purposes. One recent development has been the emergence of plastic cards with the capacity to store value electronically, which can be used for a range of retail transactions. With the advent of comprehensive anti-money laundering laws throughout the developed world, criminals are turning to alternative ways of moving funds across borders to circumvent reporting and detection systems.

Foreword | Gambling has always been a popular form of entertainment in Australia, but the advent of poker and gaming machines, casinos, TABs and lotto-style games has contributed to a substantial growth in the gambling industry. The Productivity Commission (1999) reports that 82 per cent of the Australian adult population engaged in some form of gambling in 1997-98, with gambling taxes and levies paid to state and territory governments nearly doubling over the past 10 years.

Foreword | By its nature, money laundering is unlikely ever to be measured accurately, but estimates of its cost to the economy can be made using a range of data sources. This research updates estimates of the cost of money laundering undertaken in 1995 and identifies risk areas for money laundering in and through Australia. It confirms that fraud constitutes the greatest source of laundered funds, followed by the illegal drug trade.

Concerns about displacement have been succinctly described by Eck (1998) as follows:

Fear of displacement is often based on the assumption that offenders are like predatory animals (they will do whatever it takes to commit crimes just as a rat will do whatever it takes to steal food from the cupboard).

Theorists have identified six ways in which criminal activity might be displaced following situational crime prevention measures (Reppetto 1976; Hakim & Rengert 1981; Barr & Pease 1990; Hesseling 1994):

Foreword | Australia has a long tradition of providing welfare payments to vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens. The Australian Government introduced the aged pension in 1909 and the invalid pension in 1910. During World War II, and in the decades since, numerous additional benefits have been made available to a wide range of recipients. Almost one-third of Australians now receive some kind of direct welfare payment. For many, welfare provides a permanent, secure source of income.

Foreword | Funded through the National Illicit Drug Strategy, the Australian Institute of Criminology has undertaken a major study into the drug use and offending careers of Australian prisoners. The results from surveys of adult males and females highlight the diversity and complexity of the offending and drug use histories of incarcerated adult offenders.

For the purposes of this analysis, the market in illicit antiquities might usefully be split into three stages: the supply of antiquities emanating from source nations, the demand created by consumers in market nations, and the chain of transportation which links the two. By considering these "divisions of labour", targeted solutions to the problem may be easier to identify than if the market as a whole is considered. This paper deals only with the supply and demand stages; the transport networks which move illicit goods are discussed in an earlier paper in this series (Mackenzie 2002).

Foreword | In the increasingly dynamic environment of mobile forensics, this paper provides an overview of the capabilities of three popular mobile forensic tools on three mobile phones based on Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and RIM’s BlackBerry operating systems. The paper identifies where each specific tool is best applied and also describes the limitations of each in accessing contacts, call history, message data (SMS, MMS and emails), media files and other data.

Foreword | Politically exposed persons (PEPs) are individuals who are, or have been, entrusted with prominent public functions. PEPs are potential targets for bribes due to their prominent position in public life. They have a higher risk of corruption due to their access to state accounts and funds. A review of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and FATF-style regional bodies' mutual evaluation reports reveals that a significant number of jurisdictions are found to be either non-compliant or partially-compliant with the FATF recommendation on PEPs.

Foreword | A range of alternative justice models have been introduced to address the perceived weaknesses of traditional criminal justice processes. While the success of these alternative models is usually assessed in terms of outcomes such as reoffending, they often face scrutiny over the additional costs incurred by government. This paper is one of two AIC publications focused on the Neighbourhood Justice Centre (NJC) in the City of Yarra in Melbourne. It compares the operating costs of the NJC with more traditional court and service delivery models.

Foreword | The exercise of prosecutorial discretion is one of the most important but least understood aspects in the administration of criminal justice. The considerable discretionary powers vested in prosecutors employed by the state and territory Offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are exercised in accordance with prosecution policies and guidelines, but the decision-making process is rarely subject to external scrutiny.

People smuggling and trafficking in persons have had a considerable public profile in the past decade. Both involve the movement of people and the difference between them is not always well understood by the general public. This brief examines the difference between people smuggling and trafficking in persons by looking at the variations in principle and practice.

The use of people to transfer drugs and/or money, a long standing practice of the criminal fraternity, is being replicated in the high tech crime environment. 'Money mules' (people unrelated to the criminal activity that creates the illicit funds) transfer relatively small amounts of money lodged in their bank accounts to criminals overseas. Money mules are a consequence of the need for criminals to transfer, and disguise the origins of, illicit proceeds of crime.