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This project was funded by the Crime Prevention Branch of the Criminal Justice Division, Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department.

References

Download paper: Violent assaults on taxi drivers: incidence patterns and risk factors

Foreword | As the internet and other forms of information and communications technology advances, opportunities for child sexual offenders and other financially-motivated cybercriminals to sexually exploit children will increase. Official statistics here and overseas indicate the number of investigations and prosecutions remain small but are increasing rapidly. This paper discusses non-legislative measures to address the issue of online child exploitation, particularly child grooming.

Foreword | In 2003, 1,821 males and 5,669 females aged under 15 years were recorded by police as victims of sexual assault but we know from crime victim surveys that sexual assault is the crime least likely to be reported to the police. We also know from research that adult sex offenders and victims are significantly more likely to have suffered abuse as children. A significant proportion of this abuse occurs within the family by intra-familial offenders.

• Link to first edition: The status of laws on outlaw motorcycle gangs in Australia (Research in practice summary no. 02, 12 June 2009)

Second edition, March 2010

Foreword | The Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPA) is a national awards program administered by the Australian Institute of Criminology that recognises innovative crime prevention projects that embody good practice.

Foreword | Australia's immigration rate is among the highest in the world. Migrants face special challenges integrating into a new country, especially if their language, skin colour, religion or cultural practices set them apart from mainstream society. To assess the experiences of crime among migrants, the Australian component of the 2004 International Crime Victimisation Survey oversampled migrants who were born or whose parents were born in Vietnam or the Middle East.

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A popular urban view of rural life is that it represents an escape from much of what makes life in the cities seem so unpleasant and difficult. This includes crime. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with popular beliefs, the reality is somewhat different. Until recently, there has been little empirical evidence to document the extent of farm crime in Australia.

Personal security in public places has become an area of increasing concern to governments in the past 10 years in Australia and overseas. One response has been a significant increase in the use of closed circuit television (CCTV) in densely populated areas such as central business districts and entertainment districts. CCTV is employed as a surveillance measure in such areas to monitor behaviour of individuals and in public spaces as a deterrent and opportunity reduction measure (see AIC 2006).

Alcohol-related violence

There is strong evidence of an association between the consumption of alcohol and violence (Graham & Homel 2008). Conservative estimates suggest that in 2004–05, the total costs attributable to alcohol-related crime in Australia was $1.7b; the social cost relating to alcohol-related violence (which excludes costs to the criminal justice system) was $187m; and the costs associated with the loss of life due to alcohol-related violent crime amounted to $124m (Collins & Lapsley 2007).

Foreword | Although in some ways communities appear to be increasingly more risk aversive and punitive in their attitudes toward offenders, the development and proliferation of a range of rehabilitation programs that aim to address the problems that lead to offending represents an important component of contemporary criminal justice policy in Australia.

Violent crime, with the intention of causing (or threatening) physical harm or death to the victim, attracts more attention and debate than other forms of crime. Sustained media attention combined with high-profile incidents - such as the shootings at Port Arthur (Tasmania), and Monash University and Flinders Lane in Melbourne; gang rapes in Sydney; and organised crime-related murders - have prompted a view among the Australian public that violent crime is increasing in Australia.

Foreword | Research from Australia and overseas consistently demonstrates that the effectiveness of many crime prevention initiatives is reduced by a continual lack of access to adequate crime prevention knowledge and technical skills. In particular, the internationalisation of crime has highlighted the need for renewed effort aimed at increasing the efficiency of knowledge transfer, skills development, project and program management ability, and performance measurement and evaluation capacity.

Foreword | The Australian Institute of Criminology has spent a number of years working with crime prevention agencies across Australia reviewing large-scale programs that involve the delivery of varying activities directed at the prevention of crime. Taken as a whole, this experience has shown that, despite good intentions and aspirations to evidence-based practice, both the level and quality of evaluations have been limited by several practical challenges.

Acknowledgements

This handbook was commissioned by the New South Wales Department of Attorney General and Justice and prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Joanne Baker and Emma Worthington from the New South Wales Department of Attorney General and Justice for their valuable input and feedback.

© Crown in right of the State of New South Wales (Department of Attorney General and Justice)