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Arising from recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, the Australian Institute of Criminology conducted the fourth national police custody survey in October 2002 with the cooperation of each police jurisdiction in Australia. One of the variables recorded was the most serious offence for which the person was in custody. The figures show that people were most likely to be in custody for violent, property or public order offences. The most common offence for non-Indigenous persons was property offences.

In 2003 the Australian Institute of Criminology randomly surveyed 1,078 small businesses across Australia in five business types (florists, computer retailers, booksellers, recorded music retailers and toy and game retailers) to identify the proportion of these businesses trading online, the extent to which online traders had experienced online credit card fraud in 2001 and 2002, and the losses associated with such fraud. Overall, 32 per cent of businesses had been the victim of online credit card fraud, with 51 per cent of traders experiencing more than one incident over the two years.

The inaugural annual report of the National Armed Robbery Monitoring program (NARMP) has been released. This program was established to identify and monitor trends in armed robbery, especially trends in weapon use, following the recommendation of the Australasian Police Ministers' Council. Police services in all Australian states and territories provide information about reported armed robbery victims, the offenders who robbed them, and other aspects of the attack, such as location.

The Victorian Parliamentary Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee (2005) has recently examined the problem of violence associated with motor vehicle use. Statistics on road user violence obtained from Victoria Police were examined for the period 1 July 2002 to 31 May 2004. Road user violence was defined as 'a violent offence committed by strangers based on their behaviour as drivers, cyclists or pedestrians'. The committee found that the number of recorded incidents has remained relatively stable over this period, varying between 50 and 90 incidents in any given month.

Crime victimisation surveys provide an important complement to crime statistics collected by police and courts. Key results from the Australian component of the 2004 International Crime Victimisation Survey (ICVS) show that 52 per cent of Australians had experienced at least one incident of crime in the five years prior to the survey, a drop from 55 per cent reported in the previous ICVS in 2000. Seventeen per cent of Australians were victims of crime in the preceding 12 months, down from 24 per cent in 2000.

The most recent statistics on motor vehicle theft indicate there were 139,943 motor vehicles stolen in 2001 - a one per cent increase on the number recorded stolen in 2000. In cases where the place of motor vehicle theft was specified, 61 per cent occurred in community locations, namely streets/footpaths (42 per cent), car parks (11 per cent) and other community locations (eight per cent).

The paper "Suburb Boundaries and Residential Burglars" released by the Australian Institute of Criminology reveals that, during the study period, over three-quarters (77 per cent) of residential burglary offenders in the ACT committed offences in suburbs other than their home neighbourhood. Additionally, 58 per cent of residential burglary offenders travelled across more than one suburb boundary to commit their offence.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released a paper assessing some of the major costs of crime for a range of offences. The overall cost of crime in Australia amounts to nearly $32 billion per year, which is nearly $1,600 per person and five per cent of GDP. The total cost of homicide is $930 million, and homicide carries the highest cost per victim, equalling about $1.6 million. Assault costs $1.4 billion per year, with an average of $1,800 per assault. Sexual assault costs $230 million overall, with an average cost of $2,500 per incident.

Sport and physical activity programs can have a positive impact on young people's behaviour, and may provide an important vehicle for their personal and social development. A project funded by the Australian Sports Commission, and conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology, identified 606 programs for young people in Australia that focused on sport and physical activity.

Serious Fraud in Australia and New Zealand is a report presenting the results of a study by the Australian Institute of Criminology and PricewaterhouseCoopers of serious fraud cases that went to court in Australia and New Zealand in 1998 and 1999. There were 155 completed files identified from police and prosecution agencies throughout Australia and New Zealand involving serious fraud offences (generally involving sums in excess of $100,000). The general profile of the 183 persons convicted of serious fraud offences was that they tended to be in their mid-40s and male.

A recent study by the Australian Institute of Criminology has analysed trends in bank robbery based on information from the Armed Attacks Database compiled by the Australian Bankers' Association, and data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Of the 808 bank robbery incidents between January 1998 and May 2002 in which the number of offenders involved in the hold-up was recorded, more than half (55 per cent) were committed by lone offenders, about 25 per cent by pairs, and around 20 per cent by three or more robbers (that is, gangs).

According to the Homicide in Australia: 2001-2002 National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) Annual Report, despite an overall increase in homicide victimisation in 2001-02, there was a decrease in the number of recorded homicides where the type of weapon used was a firearm. Between 1 July 1989 and 30 June 2002 there has been a gradual decline in the use of firearms to commit homicide. Firearms were used in 26 per cent of homicides in Australia in 1989-90, compared to 14 per cent in 2001-02.

Intelligence-led policing is defined as the application of criminal intelligence analysis as a rigorous decision making tool to facilitate crime reduction and prevention through effective policing strategies. Three structures (criminal environment, intelligence and the decision maker) and three processes (interpret, influence and impact) are identified as necessary for an intelligence-led policing model to work. The first stage of the model is being able to interpret the criminal environment.

Findings from the Australian Institute of Criminology's National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP) 2002 Annual Report revealed that there were a total of 69 deaths in custody in Australia. Fifty of these deaths were in prison custody and 19 were in police custody and custody-related police operations. One in five (20 per cent) of all custodial deaths involved Indigenous persons (n=14) during 2002. Of these, eight occurred in prison facilities and six occurred whilst in the custody of police.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has recently released a paper that examines the circumstances and characteristics of various types of family homicide in Australia. The data analysed in this research is taken from the National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) at the AIC that covers the period from 1 July 1989 to 30 June 2002.