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More than 40 per cent of all Australian cybercrime victims fall prey to multiple types of cybercrime in a single year, with fraud and scam victims emerging as the most vulnerable. And it’s prompted a critical reminder for Australians to bolster their online safeguards.

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) today released a report in collaboration with the eSafety Commissioner that examined the prevalence and nature of sexual extortion among a sample of Australian adolescents aged 16 to 18 years.

Joint release by The Australian National University (ANU) and the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC).

Vendors on the dark web are selling Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and drugs marketed as coronavirus vaccines or cures at high cost, according to a new study from The Australian National University (ANU).  

Sport is a basic feature of Australian culture. The achievements of Australian athletes have enhanced our image as a nation. Participation in sporting activities contributes to the health of millions of Australians; the teamwork and fair play which Australians learn on the playing field provide the basis for a good society.

Fraud and internet crime are recognised as important issues for governments and private businesses worldwide. An area of growing concern is the impact of criminal activity on householders who use the internet. Householders use the internet at home for various purposes including work, education, leisure, communication, accessing government services and managing the household. The internet provides the means to perform a variety of specific tasks such as:

Foreword | In this paper, an overview is presented of recent data on the carriage and use of knives. Analysis of the data indicated an increase in the use of knives as a proportion of all homicides, although the number of homicides remained relatively constant. The proportionate use of knives in robberies, by contrast, remained fairly constant, while the number of robberies decreased dramatically.

Foreword | This paper is timely, given that policing is currently going through a period of significant change in both operational tactics and organisational structures. New ideas in crime reduction and changes to short- and long-term policing strategies are underway. Intelligence-led policing represents a recent approach and is one of the more prevalent of the current "shifts in crime control philosophy and policing practice" (Maguire 2000).

Introduction

Not all graffiti are written by alienated teenagers, and not all vandalism constitutes wilful damage. Graffiti and vandalism are complex, multi-faceted problems requiring a range of responses for their solution.

If beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, nowhere is this more evident than in the response to graffiti. To many train travellers they are ugly, anti-social daubs, while for their practitioners they represent an expression of individuality in an impersonal world.

Foreword | Migration and refugee resettlement has been and continues to be, an important element of population growth for Australia. In recent times, more than 35,000 refugees escaping the Sudan civil war have settled in Australia—with approximately 6,500 people now living in Queensland.

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.

Foreword | The benefits associated with focusing strategies and interventions on family violence offenders early in their offending careers are well established. Yet accurately identifying first-time family violence perpetrators is difficult because of the high under-reporting of family violence. This study involved the analysis of police narratives completed for first-time family violence perpetrators, as identified through police offence records to determine their accuracy in identifying first-time family violence offenders.

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 | It is generally accepted that a person’s living situation, in particular their experience of homelessness and housing stress, can have both long-lasting and wide-ranging consequences. For criminal justice practitioners, the task of limiting homelessness and preventing crime remain key policy priorities in need of ongoing and integrated research.

Foreword | The incidence of service station armed robbery has steadily increased over the past decade. Using the Australian Institute of Criminology's National Armed Robbery Monitoring Program (NARMP) data, this paper examines the incidence of armed robbery at service stations and profiles the offenders involved. The NARMP data shows that about one in ten armed robberies in Australia were of service stations, and that these were more likely to be targeted at night by lone offenders using knives. The most common item stolen was cash, with an average value of $643.

Gangs exist within and outside schools, though not all delinquent behaviour is gang activity and not all gang activity involves crime or deviance. An earlier Trends and Issues paper (no. 237) stated that an important part of gang research is to explore ways of stopping criminal gangs from forming and/or growing. A working definition of a criminal gang for the present discussion is one in which a group sees itself as a "gang", and is perceived by others around it as a "gang", primarily because of its illegal activities.