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Foreword | Carjacking literature is limited, and perceptions vary about the level of violence involved, diverse scenarios and the motivations of offenders. The media tends to overrepresent carjackings involving weapons and violence, although these are relatively rare incidents. Motivations range from instrumental triggers (where the car is used in some other crime) to acquisition for onselling the car or its parts. Similarly, methods vary from opportunistic to organised theft involving support.

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.

Foreword | This study builds on a previous project that examined the link between child maltreatment and juvenile offending. It followed all children born in 1983 in Queensland through any contact they had with the child protection system, and/or any juvenile justice matter that required the child to appear in court or be held in custody. The current study involved the addition of the 1984 birth cohort and formal police cautioning histories to the dataset. This report describes the key findings in relation to cautioning.

Foreword | Prosecution agencies are often criticised for their performance in prosecuting sexual assault. A lack of external transparency means there is little knowledge about the specific criteria used in decisions to proceed with or discontinue prosecutions. Understanding the factors that impact on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion therefore constitutes an important step towards improving criminal justice outcomes in sexual assault prosecutions.

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 | The idea has been gathering momentum for 50 years or more that institutions of care such as families or schools are more important in preventing crime than institutions of regulation such as the police. However, there are big gaps in our knowledge about how well civil-society initiatives work, including the effectiveness of family-support services that are often available in socially disadvantaged communities.

Foreword | Increasing demand for Australian seafood overseas and at home is driving both legal and illegal markets, heightening the need for sustainable harvesting and management. Though illegal activity in the Australian domestic fishing industry has long been thought to be small-scale and opportunistic, significant numbers are regularly flouting the regulations. Some organised criminal activity too is evident, in high-value, low-volume fish stocks, such as abalone and rock lobster.

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.

Foreword | People who have been victimised by interpersonal violence have an increased risk of mental illness, and associated hospitalisation costs burden the Australian population. A paucity of data makes it difficult to develop appropriate preventative initiatives. This paper outlines a population-based study in Western Australia investigating mental illness in hospitalised victims due to interpersonal violence. Groups at risk of interpersonal violence include young people between 20 and 29 years old and Indigenous females.

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

Online and cloud computing services are increasingly prevalent to the point where, for many people, they are integral to communication in their daily lives. From a criminal justice perspective, this makes them key sources of evidence for prosecuting both traditional and online crime (Quick, Martini & Choo 2014). However, the successful prosecution of individuals who commit crimes involving electronic evidence relies upon two major factors.

Foreword | With the ageing of the population, and increasing demand for individuals to be financially literate and self-sufficient, older Australians may find themselves at greater risk of fraud. Although the proportion of the elderly experiencing fraud is lower than for those aged less than 65 years, this is the crime they are most likely to experience and the effects can be devastating as the elderly are often not able to recoup the losses.

This publication was the official journal of the Australian Institute of Criminology.

Vol. 1 No. 1 1989 - Vol. 7 No. 3 1996

The following documents are available only in PDF format.

Foreword | Bushfire arson is an important issue in Australia, but studies analysing its prevalence and distribution are sparse and have focused on isolated areas or specific data collections.

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.