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Violence in the workplace is an emerging problem affecting increasing numbers of workers and employers. Across the industrialised world, significant levels of low-level violence such as abuse and threats are now being reported in a range of jobs. While assaults while on the job remain relatively rare in Australia, the potential for the incidence to increase cannot be ignored.

• Annex A : Taxi driver safety study: retrospective questionnaire, drivers (PDF 27kB)
• Annex B : Taxi driver safety study: driver interview questionnaire (PDF 20kB)

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms
• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Review of program activity
• Impact of project implementation, community gardens and increased participation
• Impact on recorded crime and reporting rates
• Impact on social cohesion and collective efficacy
• Impact on residents
• Cost-benefit analysis
• What worked, what did not and what could be improved?
• References

Prepared by the Northern Institute at Charles Darwin University and the Australian Institute of Criminology.

End of school events, such as Schoolies Week, can attract large groups of unsupervised young people and are often accompanied by an increase in antisocial behaviour in an area (OCP 2007). When individuals, particularly young people, congregate, it is often a concern for members of the community and the prevention of group violence can pose policing and management challenges (White 2006). Strategies to reduce group misbehaviour for organised events include:

The Australian Cybercrime Survey is Australia’s largest annual survey dedicated to measuring cybercrime in the community. Each year, a minimum of 10,000 respondents are recruited from an establish online panel to answer questions about cybercrime victimisation, online safety strategies, help-seeking behaviour and financial losses and other harms. Results from the survey are published in our annual Cybercrime in Australia report.

Foreword | The Australian heavy vehicle industry is critical to the movement of people, freight, livestock and other goods. However, every year there are deaths and serious injuries on Australian roads, some of which are caused by speeding heavy vehicles.

Foreword | Across the spectrum of operational policing activities, one situation that poses a degree of risk to community safety is when an alleged offender chooses to flee in a vehicle. In the worst case, the offender, police members or other bystanders may be injured or killed. Every motor vehicle pursuit that ends in a death is a tragedy and one that impacts not only on the families and friends of the deceased, but also on the police members involved in the incident.

Preface

"People don't seem to handle their anger well any more." These words were spoken by an official of an industry staff association whose members are widely subjected to customer harassment. The comment highlights an apparently growing phenomenon in the workplace: aggression expressed by consumers/clients/customers and others toward service providers.

Foreword | Online communities are increasingly being recognised as a way of sharing ideas and knowledge among different practitioner communities, particularly when practitioners are not able to meet face to face. This paper explores the considerations associated with establishing online communities for crime prevention practitioners, drawing on research from across the community of practice, online community and knowledge management sectors.

What is graffiti?

Graffiti refers to the act of marking property with writing, symbols or graphics (Weisel 2002; White 2001). For the purpose of this paper, graffiti is defined as the marking of other people's property without their consent. In this context, graffiti is illegal and in Australia it is a persistent problem that attracts a variety of penalties.

Occupational violence has been defined as "incidents where staff are abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to their work, including commuting to and from work, involving the explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, wellbeing or health." In the previous issue of this series (no. 9), the three major types of occupational violence were described (external, client-initiated, and internal organisational). Here, measures for the prevention of occupational violence are summarised.

A roundtable was recently held in Victoria to develop strategies to curb antisocial behaviour, with a focus on violence and public safety—particularly alcohol-related incidents. Attendees included academics, police, health professionals, representatives from the justice system and the co-founder of a violence prevention initiative.