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The Australian Bureau of Statistics' publication Crime and Safety Australia presents findings from a household survey that collected data on the nature and extent of crime in the community. The publication includes information from individuals and households about their experience of selected crimes, as well as details regarding the most recent experience of crime such as whether it was reported to police.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has recently released a paper that examines the extent to which participants in the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program under-report their recent drug use. Detainees who tested positive for drugs were more likely to self-report use in the past 30 days than in the last 2 to 3 days. Detainees with the most to lose were more likely to under-report their drug use.

The Australian Institute of Criminology recently released Statistics on Juvenile Detention in Australia: 1981-2002. This paper provides a statistical overview of juvenile detention from 1981 to 2002, with a detailed review of the financial year 2001-02. At 30 June 2002, the rate of detention for Indigenous juveniles in Australia was 256.7 per 100,000 relevant population^*, while the rate for non-Indigenous juveniles was 13.6 per 100,000 relevant population^*.

The Australian Institute of Criminology and PricewaterhouseCoopers' report Serious Fraud in Australia and New Zealand presents the results 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 highest level of risk in the private sector concerned prudential failures to do with the provision of finance and credit.

Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, a publication from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, presents national crime statistics relating to victims of a selected range of offences that have been recorded by police. Between 2001 and 2002, the proportion of murders, attempted murders, kidnapping/abductions and robberies that involved a weapon decreased. In 2002, attempted murder was the offence most likely to involve either a firearm (22 per cent) or knife (35 per cent) whereas sexual assault was the offence least likely to involve a weapon.

The publication Corrective Services Australia from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, presents information on persons in custody and community based corrections. In the June quarter 2003, the average daily number of prisoners in Australia was 22,507, an increase of 322 (1 per cent) on the March quarter 2003. This is the highest level on a quarterly basis since the collection commenced in March quarter 1998. Furthermore, the average daily number of prisoners has increased by 1020 (5 per cent) since the June quarter 2001.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has recently released the results of the 2001-2002 National Farm Crime Survey, the second annual survey on farm crime. This research was funded by the National Crime Prevention Program, Attorney General's Department. A total of 1309 broadacre and dairy farms were surveyed about their experiences of crime between 1 July 2001 and 30 June 2002. Overall, 13 per cent of these farms experienced crime, a slight decrease from the comparable number that experienced farm crime in the first survey.

A report titled The Female Criminal: An Overview of Women's Drug Use and Offending Behaviour released by the Australian Institute of Criminology, provides an overview of Australian and international research on the links between women's drug use and criminal behaviour. Women's drug use is a defining factor in their participation in crime, in that the severity of their drug use is more closely related to their criminality than it is for men, particularly for activities such as prostitution and property crime.

Firearm Related Deaths in Australia, 1991-2001 examines the use of firearms to inflict fatal injury in Australia. The data focuses on five types of fatal firearm injury: suicide, homicide, accidents, legal intervention and those deaths classified as undetermined by the coroner. In total there were 5083 registered firearm related deaths in Australia between 1991 and 2001. Suicides accounted for the majority of these firearm related deaths (77 per cent), followed by homicide (15 per cent). In 1991, there were 629 firearm related deaths compared to 333 deaths in 2001.

The majority of Australian prisoners will one day return to the community as only four per cent of sentenced prisoners are serving "life" sentences. A paper recently released by the Australian Institute of Criminology examines various issues linked to the provision of post-release services to prisoners. The paper draws on both international literature and a roundtable discussion held at the Australian Institute of Criminology.

The Drug Use Careers of Offenders (DUCO) study released by the Australian Institute of Criminology examined the lifetime offending and drug use careers of over 2000 adult male inmates incarcerated in mid-2001. This project is funded by the Australian Government Attorney General's Department under the National Illicit Drugs Strategy. The study found that the majority of offenders reported using illegal drugs, and poly-drug use was common. More than 80 per cent had used any of the four main drug types - cannabis, heroin, amphetamines and cocaine.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released a paper that examines the issues surrounding CCTV. In this case, CCTV refers to visual surveillance systems designed to monitor public spaces such as malls and major thoroughfares. Results of research on the impacts of CCTV in open-street settings have to date been ambiguous. Whether crime is prevented by CCTV or merely displaced to other locations remains contested. There is no hard evidence to show that CCTV systems are the panacea for crime problems in public space.

Public perception of the levels of crime are based on the various sources of statistics that provide this information. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released a paper that compares crime victimisation statistics from a number of sources published in Australia. The prevalence rate of crime victimisation in Australia differs based on the methodology used for data collection. The General Social Survey is an interviewer based survey conducted by the ABS. This survey found that nine per cent of respondents were victims of assault.

The Australian Institute of Criminology's Australian crime: facts and figures 2003 publication is a compilation of the most recently available national information on crime in Australia. The publication covers different types of recorded crime such as homicide, assault, robbery, unlawful entry with intent and motor vehicle theft. Motor vehicle theft is the taking of a motor vehicle unlawfully or without permission. There were 113,389 motor vehicles reported to police as stolen in 2002, with 884 vehicles stolen per 100,000 registered cars.

A report titled Recidivism of sexual assault offenders: rates, risk factors and treatment efficacy provides an overview of Australian and international research on sexual, violent and general recidivism among sex offenders. Despite the assumption that sexual offenders are particularly prone to reoffend, reconviction rates for sex crimes are relatively low. Sexual offenders are similar to the general offender population in terms of their criminal histories and their sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics.