Search

Indigenous people (Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Australians) are disproportionately victims and offenders in homicide incidents both in relation to their relative proportion of the Australian population and in comparison with their non-Indigenous counterparts. In 2011–12, Indigenous people comprised three percent of the Australian population (ABS 2009; ABS 2012) yet constituted 13 percent of homicide victims (n=35) and 11 percent of homicide offenders (n=32; Bryant & Cussen 2015).

Australia's criminal justice system has been witness to significant transformation, primarily in response to a number of important factors including:

Foreword | Responding to juvenile offending is a unique policy and practice challenge. While a substantial proportion of crime is perpetuated by juveniles, most juveniles will ‘grow out’ of offending and adopt law-abiding lifestyles as they mature. This paper outlines the factors (biological, psychological and social) that make juvenile offenders different from adult offenders and that necessitate unique responses to juvenile crime.

Foreword | Statistics consistently highlight a higher prevalence of the use of amphetamines in Western Australia compared with other Australian drug markets. It is the third most commonly used drug in Western Australia behind cannabis and ecstasy.

Using data collected by Drugs Use Monitoring Australia (DUMA) program at the East Perth watch-house, researchers from Edith Cowan University explore the relationship between amphetamine use and the crimes committed by detainees who have used this drug.

Key findings

• The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) interviewed 842 detainees about their first experience of drug use as part of the AIC’s Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program. Detainees were asked to recount the reasons why they first tried drugs, as well as why they continued to use them. Those detainees who had abstained were asked to nominate the factors that were important in their decision to not use drugs.

Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews, and Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt have today announced the recipients of the Indigenous Justice Research Program (IJRP) funding.

Foreword | For more than a decade, Australia has witnessed a sustained reduction in property crime. Yet relatively little is known about what may have caused this decline.

Foreword | While opportunistic crime in Australia's fishing industry has existed for a long time, there is increasing and widespread concern about the extent and scope of illegal activity. High-value, low-volume fish products (such as abalone, shark fin and seahorse) are vulnerable to organised criminal exploitation. Without adequate controls, the viability of stocks (and the industry itself) may be placed in jeopardy.

Contents

• Introduction: Review of Australian criminological research, 1987
  Paul Wilson
• Welcome address
  David Biles

Summaries of papers

• Exploring violence at sporting events: research in Bathurst
  Arthur Veno and Elizabeth Veno
• Victorian occupational health and safety legislation: an examination of law in transition
  Kit Carson
• Crime perception and victimisation of inner city residents
  John Minnery
• Public perception of sentencing in Perth, Western Australia
  David Indermaur

The 2004 Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) annual report found that a higher proportion of adult police detainees suffered from psychological distress than occurs in the general population. This level of distress increased if the detainee was dependent on either drugs or alcohol. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was used to measure the level of anxiety and depressive symptoms a person experienced in the 30 days prior to interview. The method identifies four levels of psychological distress: low, moderate, high and very high.

Summary report of the seminar is attached.

Foreword | Offenders with complex drug dependencies involving two or more drug types comprise a substantial proportion of drug court and drug diversion clients, yet evaluation studies have demonstrated that these offenders often have poorer retention rates and higher post-program reoffending rates. Poly drug use also has implications for police and law enforcement agencies, as users are potentially a more diversified group whose varied patterns of use makes them more resilient to illicit drug market fluctuations.

Foreword | International research suggests alcohol consumption increases the number of homicides and that homicides involving alcohol differ significantly to non alcohol-related homicides. The current study sought to build on the limited Australian research on alcohol-related homicide by examining solved homicides recorded in the National Homicide Monitoring Program over a six year period.

Foreword | Public concern about crime victimisation is one of a range of factors that policymakers take into account when creating new criminal offences, setting penalties and allocating resources for policing and prosecution. The level of public concern about rising crime can also determine the extent to which people engage in certain daily activities, sometimes restricting behaviour unnecessarily.