Archive
AU — Mental disorder prevalence at the gateway to the criminal justice system
Mental disorder prevalence at the gateway to the criminal justice system
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Many criminal justice practitioners have observed that offenders experience poor mental health. While international studies have found mental health to be poorer among prisoners than in the general population, less information is available either about offenders who are not imprisoned or alleged offenders detained by police. The mental health of offenders is of key policy interest from both health service and crime prevention perspectives.
This is the first Australian study to measure the prevalence of mental disorder among offenders nationally, using information provided by 690 police detainees who participated in the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program. Around half reported having been diagnosed with a mental disorder in the past.
The study was also the first to use the Corrections Mental Health Screen (CMHS), an instrument validated for gender-specific screening, on an Australian offender population. Results suggest that almost half of detainees may have a diagnosable mental disorder at the time of arrest, including 42 percent of women and 28 percent of men with no previous diagnosis. In the routine screening of police detainees as they enter the criminal justice system, the CMHS could be used to identify for the first time those who would benefit from psychological assessment and appropriate intervention.
AU — Firearm trafficking and serious and organised crime gangs
Firearm trafficking and serious and organised crime gangs
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Despite strict regulations on the import, export, ownership, use, transfer and storage of licit firearms, there exists in Australia a potentially large pool of illicit firearms, some of which are acquired, stockpiled and used for serious and organised crime. This report follows a modest group of publicly released examinations of firearm trafficking operations in Australia, to describe what can be determined about the composition and maintenance of the illicit firearm market, its use by serious and organised crime groups and the diversity of transaction arrangements used to vend illicit firearms.
Australian crime: Facts & figures: 2011
Australian crime: Facts & figures: 2011
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Australian Crime: Facts & Figures is an up-to-date snapshot of crime patterns and trends in Australia. It contains information on specific crimes, victims, offenders, the location of criminal acts and the operation of criminal justice systems—focusing on the work of police, courts and prisons.
Australia’s Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme: Managing vulnerabilities to exploitation
Australia is not immune to the risks of labour trafficking; labour shortages, sector tolerance to illegal work practices and the recruitment of vulnerable workers can result in labour exploitation (David 2010). The horticultural sector in Australia is experiencing some of these risks and Pacific Islanders are a vulnerable migrant group working in this sector.Australia’s Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme (PSWPS) aims to create a safe pathway for unskilled or low-skilled Pacific Islanders to temporarily work in Australia’s horticultural sector. Recent research by the AIC suggests that addressing labour trafficking does not just involve prosecuting the most extreme cases but should also have a focus on preventing and reducing a broader spectrum of practices that create an environment that is tolerant, or even encouraging, of exploitation (David 2010). While the PSWPS is not an anti-trafficking program, it has been designed and piloted to prevent a broad spectrum of poor or illegal labour practices and therefore may assist to prevent labour trafficking in Australia and regionally. This paper provides an analysis of the PSWPS and examines emerging evidence about how the program manages risks of exploitation of overseas temporary workers from the Pacific Islands.
AU — Misperceptions about child sex offenders
Misperceptions about child sex offenders
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Sexual offending against children is a highly emotive issue. It is nonetheless important that public policy initiatives to prevent and/or respond to child sexual abuse are based on the available evidence about child sex offenders.
This paper addresses five common misperceptions about the perpetrators of sexual offences against children. Specifically, the issues addressed include whether all child sex offenders are ‘paedophiles’, who sexually abuse children, whether most child sex offenders were victims of sexual abuse themselves, rates of recidivism among child sex offenders and the number of children sex offenders typically abuse before they are detected by police.
The evidence outlined in this paper highlights that there are few black and white answers to these questions. Perpetrators of sexual crimes against children are not, contrary to widespread opinion, a homogenous group. Rather, there are a number of varied offending profiles that characterise child sex offenders. Gaining an understanding of the nuances of this offender population is critical if children are to be protected from sexual abuse.
AU — Misuse of the Non-Profit Sector for Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing
The manner in which terrorist organisations finance their activities became a policy focal point after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Non-profit organisations, and charities in particular, were identified as potentially significant contributors to terrorism financing. This premise was based on known links between charitable giving and prominent terrorist groups, and the vulnerabilities of the non-profit sector to misuse.
Money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks to the Australian non-profit sector are thought to be low. However, the impact of such misuse is inevitably high. One of the underlying premises in combating non-profit misuse has been the application of a response proportionate to risk. Australia has based its response on education, sector outreach and peak body codes of conduct, alongside more conventional forms of regulatory control.
This paper examines vulnerabilities to ML/TF misuse and the publicly available evidence for actual misuse. It is suggested that the Australian response could incorporate a more uniform commitment from the sector to adopting risk-based strategies, with government providing education for the sector that is based on the identification of specific points of vulnerability.
Policing licensed premises in the Australian Capital Territory
Policing licensed premises in the Australian Capital Territory
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
There is an old joke that says that an Australian’s definition of a drinking problem is being in a situation where you can’t get a drink. This reflects Australia’s well-established reputation for being a community where the consumption of alcohol, frequently at excessive and harmful levels, is associated with many forms of entertainment and participation in social events. In other words, the association between alcohol consumption and the enjoyment of social activity is a deeply embedded cultural phenomenon.
However, the evidence relating to the range of individual and social harms associated with alcohol misuse is strong. In 2007, one in four Australians were a victim of alcohol-related verbal abuse, 13 percent were put in fear and 4.5 percent of Australians aged 14 years or older had been physically abused by someone under the influence of alcohol (AIHW 2008). The rates of physical and verbal abuse by a person affected by alcohol are more than twice the rate for other drug types. Alcohol-related crime and disorder also has a significant adverse impact upon the perceptions of safety among the broader community.
At the same time, Australia also has a substantial reputation for developing and implementing innovative policy approaches to trying to reduce the harms associated with excessive alcohol use and violence in particular. Many of these initiatives have been focused on regulatory responses that target licensed premises and liquor outlets. Licensed premises are a high-risk setting for alcohol-related violence, with a large proportion of assaults occurring in or within very close proximity to hotels and nightclubs. Furthermore, both patrons and staff of licensed premises are at a heightened risk of becoming involved in a violent incident compared with other locations.
Over the years, police and liquor regulatory authorities, often in partnership with liquor licensees, have committed significant effort and resources to efforts to improve the overall safety of drinking venues and the overall amenity of the nearby community. Unfortunately, often what has been missing from such efforts has been any systematic assessment of their relative effectiveness and methods for sharing the lessons learned.
This report is part of an attempt to redress this knowledge deficit. Undertaken in close partnership with Australian Capital Territory Policing (ACTP), the project was a detailed study of the effectiveness of a series of policing measures implemented by the ACTP over several months to reduce and prevent alcohol-related violence in and around licensed premises and entertainment precincts in the ACT.
As with similar studies previously conducted here and overseas, the project found mixed results in relation to effectiveness. However, the project was able to help identify and explain what things were working and why, thereby providing a series of evidence-based recommendations for future policing in this area, many of which it is pleasing to note have already been adopted by ACTP.
AU — Misuse of the non-profit sector for money laundering and terrorism financing
Misuse of the non-profit sector for money laundering and terrorism financing
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
The manner in which terrorist organisations finance their activities became a policy focal point after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Non-profit organisations, and charities in particular, were identified as potentially significant contributors to terrorism financing. This premise was based on known links between charitable giving and prominent terrorist groups, and the vulnerabilities of the non-profit sector to misuse.
Money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks to the Australian non-profit sector are thought to be low. However, the impact of such misuse is inevitably high. One of the underlying premises in combating non-profit misuse has been the application of a response proportionate to risk. Australia has based its response on education, sector outreach and peak body codes of conduct, alongside more conventional forms of regulatory control.
This paper examines vulnerabilities to ML/TF misuse and the publicly available evidence for actual misuse. It is suggested that the Australian response could incorporate a more uniform commitment from the sector to adopting risk-based strategies, with government providing education for the sector that is based on the identification of specific points of vulnerability.
AU — Strategies for preventing scrap metal theft
Strategies for preventing scrap metal theft
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Scrap metal theft is a lucrative and attractive venture for thieves and a significant issue for the construction industry (Jones 2008). It appears to be facilitated by a largely unregulated scrap metal recycling industry, the relative ease of theft due to the openness and accessibility of construction sites, and encouraged by escalating metal prices. The price of copper, for example, has doubled since 2005.
The costs of scrap metal theft are substantial. The UK Home Office estimates that scrap metal theft costs the UK £360m each year (‘Copper thieves in the eyes of new metal detectors’ Professional Engineering 22(1): 7). Not only does it place additional financial burdens on construction companies who have to replace the materials, it also impacts on the broader community by affecting utilities such as electrical and telecommunications systems and even the railways (Bush 2009). The cost for thieves can also be significant as incidences of injuries such as burns and fatalities are high.
Traditionally, construction companies have responded to scrap metal theft by introducing and enforcing access control measures, such as CCTV and electrified fences. However, these strategies may have a relatively limited effect, especially when the theft is an ‘inside job’, perpetrated by someone working on a construction site (Boba & Santos 2008).
AU — Court-based mental health diversion programs
Court-based mental health diversion programs
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Research suggests that individuals with a mental illness and/or intellectual disability are over-represented at all stages in the criminal justice system (Butler & Alnutt 2003). As such, it appears that traditional criminal justice responses may not be as effective with this offender group. Alternative criminal justice processes that have attracted the attention of policymakers are specialist mental health courts and diversion programs. Court-based mental health diversion programs are based on the concept of therapeutic jurisprudence, which emphasises the law’s ‘healing potential to increase wellbeing’ (Graham 2007: 18). As such, they seek to address the underlying causes of criminal behaviour exhibited by offenders with a mental illness and/or intellectual disability by referring them to treatment services such as drug and alcohol counselling.
AU — Patterns of mephedrone, GHB, Ketamine and Rohypnol use among police detainees
Patterns of mephedrone, GHB, Ketamine and Rohypnol use among police detainees
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Key findings
In recognition of the need for ongoing monitoring of new or less common drug types, the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), as part of the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program, interviewed 824 police detainees about their knowledge of and experience with mephedrone, GHB, Ketamine and Rohypnol.Mephedrone was the least known of the four drugs, with only 221 detainees (27%) reporting knowledge of the drug. Only six detainees (<1%) had used the drug in the previous 12 months, while 30 detainees (4%) knew of someone dealing mephedrone at the time they were interviewed. Detainees in East Perth were the most likely to have reported knowledge of mephedrone.
GHB was known to more than half of all detainees interviewed (53%) and had been used in the 12 months prior to interview by 23 detainees (3%). More detainees had been offered GHB (8%), or knew of a dealer selling GHB (6%), than any of the other four drug types.
Ketamine was known to 43 percent of detainees and had been used by three percent. The prevalence of Ketamine use was equal with GHB, however, knowledge of a current Ketamine dealer was lower (4%).
Rohypnol was the most widely known of the four drug types (59%), however, use of the drug in the 12 months prior to interview was lower than for GHB or Ketamine (1%).
AU — Risk factors for advance fee fraud victimisation
Risk factors for advance fee fraud victimisation
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Fraud is Australia’s most costly form of crime with the Australian Institute of Criminology estimating that in excess of $8.5b was lost to fraud in 2005 (Rollings 2008). Consumer fraud alone has been found to cost Australians almost $1b each year (ABS 2008c). Most types of consumer fraud entail the use of so-called ‘advance fee’ techniques in which individuals are tricked into paying money—an ‘advance fee’—upfront in order to secure an anticipated financial or other benefit at a later date. However, the promises of wealth are false and victims invariably lose their payments in full. Such scams have had a huge impact globally, with Ultrascan (2008) estimating that US$4.3b was lost to advance fee fraud in 2006. To date, however, there has been only limited research on how and why people respond to such unsolicited invitations and become victims. This paper examines the characteristics of a sample of victims of advance fee frauds to determine how their behaviour and personal circumstances might have contributed to their willingness to respond to unsolicited invitations and to their subsequent loss of money or personal information.
Crimes against international students in Australia: 2005–09
Crimes against international students in Australia: 2005–09
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
A key part of the Australian Institute of Criminology’s role is to provide a capacity to investigate new and evolving crimes and in the past two years, there has been significant interest in determining the nature and extent to which international students studying in Australia are victims of crime.
Detailed findings are provided from what is the most comprehensive student victimisation study ever conducted in Australia, based on an analysis of Department of Immigration and Citizenship international student visa records for more than 400,000 students matched with police crime victimisation records. In addition, supplementary analysis of the AIC’s National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) database, as well as the Australian component of the 2004 International Crime Victimisation Survey (ICVS), are used to provide additional context to the AIC’s investigation.
Primarily, this research was designed to provide the best available estimation of the extent to which international students have been the victims of crime during their time in Australia and to determine whether international students are more or less likely than an Australian comparison population to have experienced crime.
This report provides the best available estimation of the extent to which international students have been the victims of crime during their time in Australia and has enabled the rate of recorded crimes experienced by international students from the five largest source countries (People’s Republic of China, India, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the United States) to be compared with the rate for Australian reference populations. While this research has not answered the question of whether attacks against overseas students are racially motivated, the findings from this research do point to other factors such as employment and the use of public transport, that influence the risk or likelihood of overseas students experiencing crime. This provides direction for crime prevention efforts to reduce the risk of crime for this population.
This report represents the culmination of the AIC’s research into crimes against international students.
AU — Crime Families: Gender and the Intergenerational Transfer of Criminal Tendencies
Crime Families: Gender and the Intergenerational Transfer of Criminal Tendencies
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
While it has been established that there is an intergenerational transmission of criminal behaviour (ie crime can run through generations in families), the role of gender in the intergenerational transfer of criminality has not been fully explored. The impact of a father’s criminality on the subsequent offending of his sons and grandsons has been established, but the impact of a father’s criminality on the offending of his daughter and the impact of a mother’s criminal history on the offending of her sons and/or daughters is less clear. This Tasmanian study of six known criminal families identifies clear differences in the intergenerational transfer of criminality from mothers to their sons and daughters. The influence of paternal (a father’s) criminality on children of both genders is strong, but is particularly strong for male children. The more severe the criminal offending history, the greater likelihood of intergenerational transmission. To prevent the cycle of crime, policymakers should focus their attention on reducing environmental risk through intervention programs targeting children known to be at increased risk of involvement in crime due to the criminality of their parents. Such interventions should incorporate attempts to address the children’s perceptions of themselves as ‘criminals’ in order to reduce the risk of ‘self fulfilling prophecy’
AU — Police interviews with vulnerable adult suspects
Police interviews with vulnerable adult suspects
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
In this paper, some of the key issues police are likely to encounter when dealing with vulnerable adult suspects are considered and an overview of the Australian legislation and police policies governing police interviews in such circumstances is presented. This paper is concerned with vulnerable adults interviewed by the police as suspects. It is acknowledged, however, that many of the observations about good practice when interviewing witnesses continue to apply—perhaps to an even greater extent—when interviewing suspects. For example, interviewers’ questions need to be matched to respondents’ communicative abilities and suggestive/leading questions and other coercive practices should be avoided (Powell 2002). Smith and Tilney (2007), and Bull (2010) have described the following steps as a means of achieving the best evidence when dealing with vulnerable witnesses:
- establish good rapport, including establishing the ground rules and advising the interviewee that it is acceptable to say if they do not understand or know the answer;
- obtain as much free narrative as possible, encouraging the interviewee with prompts and open-ended questions such as ‘tell me more about that’ and ‘what happened next?’;
- ask questions of the right type in the right order. For example, open questions should precede specific questions and then closed questions. Leading questions should only be used as a last resort;
- have meaningful closure, including a summary of the interviewee’s evidence and providing them with an opportunity to correct any errors; and
evaluate the interview, in terms of both the information obtained and the interviewer’s performance.This paper does not consider issues relating to court processes and the admissibility of evidence; nor does the paper explore the literature in relation to child witnesses (eg see Powell, Wright & Clark 2010) or the specific issues of vulnerable witnesses as victims, for example, in the context of sexual assault matters (eg see Powell & Wright 2009), although these are all important linked areas of research.
+ Full Document (PDF)
AU — Fraud vulnerabilities and the global financial crisis
Fraud vulnerabilities and the global financial crisis
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
This paper examines the evidence that would enable judgement of what is likely to happen to the incidence of fraud in the context of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), whether as a result of the crisis or of other factors that coincide with it. Normally, statistical data on crime and/or cost of crime trends is examined to enable determination of whether a problem is getting better or worse. However, despite measures being developed to improve fraud statistics in Australia, these cannot be applied retrospectively to past data (especially since the last serious recession was almost 2 decades ago and the last comparable global financial crisis was in the 1930s); and fairly comprehensive Australian cost of fraud data are currently available only for one year and therefore cannot be used to show trends in the cost of fraud. Nonetheless, some useful insights can be gained from an examination of the GFC that could be used to predict fraud trends in the future and to determine how best to minimise risks of such opportunistic crime occurring in the years ahead.
+ Full Paper (PDF)
Welfare fraud in Australia: Dimensions and issues
Welfare fraud in Australia: Dimensions and issues
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Australia has a long tradition of providing welfare payments to vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens. The Australian Government introduced the aged pension in 1909 and the invalid pension in 1910. During World War II, and in the decades since, numerous additional benefits have been made available to a wide range of recipients. Almost one-third of Australians now receive some kind of direct welfare payment. For many, welfare provides a permanent, secure source of income. For others, government benefits are a vital stop-gap measure that contributes to equality of opportunity and longer term employment and career opportunities. However, the availability of welfare also creates temptations for fraud and allegations of fraud contribute to controversy about the appropriateness of welfare. This controversy can detract from public perceptions of the legitimacy of the welfare system and the dignity of welfare recipients. A major purpose of this paper is to help inform the debate about welfare by providing data on the size and dimensions of welfare fraud, including substantiated fraud, as evidenced by criminal convictions. Substantiated fraud represents a very small fraction of all welfare allocations, but losses can involve scams worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another Trends & Issues paper (Prenzler 2011) will examine current anti-fraud strategies and their impacts.
Crime prevention programs for culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Australia
Crime prevention programs for culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Australia
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Australia has a greater proportion of migrants (ie people living in Australia who were born overseas) relative to most other Western countries (Baur 2006); as at 30 June 2009, around a quarter of Australia’s estimated resident population was born overseas (ABS 2010a). According to the 2006 Census, in descending order of population size, the main CALD groups in Australia are from Italy, China, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. However, between 1996 and 2006, increasing proportions of new arrivals came from Sudan (an average increase of 28% per year), Afghanistan (12%) and Iraq (10%; see Baur 2006). Most CALD communities in Australia, especially Asian communities, are concentrated in urban areas (Sawrikar & Katz 2008).
It is generally recognised (eg see OMI 2009) that people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities may face a range of complex issues, including discrimination and prejudice, social isolation and disenfranchisement, and difficulties in assimilating within the broader Australian culture and/or in maintaining a sense of identification with the culture of origin. In addition, refugees or people who have migrated to Australia as a result of adversity may be suffering from undiagnosed or untreated trauma. All of these factors may impact on involvement in and engagement with the criminal justice system. In this paper, the key criminal justice issues in relation to CALD communities are reviewed and a summary of relevant protective and risk factors provided. Some CALD-specific crime prevention programs, which serve to promote resiliency and protective factors and/or inhibit risk factors, are then presented. In order to ensure relevance and currency, the paper is primarily limited to Australian research from 2006 onwards.
+ Full Report (PDF)
AU — Alcohol and disorderly conduct on Friday and Saturday nights: Findings from the DUMA program
Alcohol and disorderly conduct on Friday and Saturday nights: Findings from the DUMA program
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
A group that is largely overlooked by both the media and in research is alcohol-related disorderly conduct offenders whose behaviour is not necessarily physically violent, but is likely to contribute significantly to the alcohol-related workload of operational police, as well as to the community costs associated with alcohol misuse. The data from this report provide important information supporting a range of complementary strategies such as regulatory controls and their enforcement (eg licensing restrictions and mandatory responsible service of alcohol provisions), social marketing campaigns targeting young people and building community awareness of the dangers associated with alcohol misuse.
+ Full Paper (PDF)
Australia — Fraud in the ‘outback’: Capable guardianship in preventing financial crime in regional and remote communities
Fraud in the ‘outback’: Capable guardianship in preventing financial crime in regional and remote communities
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
The Australian Institute of Criminology previously estimated the cost of fraud in Australia in 2005 to be approximately $8.5b (Rollings 2008). Fraud risks affect all sectors of society extending from those who provide government services, to those who receive benefits, as well as private sector businesses such as primary producers, and those who buy and sell goods and services online. In this paper, the specific risks of financial crime that arise in and subsequently affect those in remote and regional communities in Australia are explored. The risk of fraud is increased because of the difficulties that arise in ensuring adequate levels of ‘capable guardianship’ in non-urban locations which are often disadvantaged in terms of money and knowledge of fraud risks, as well as the ability to avoid them. Examples of recent fraud cases from regional and remote Australia are used to highlight the risks associated with fraud in these places and to indicate where the absence of guardianship may have increased risks. It is concluded that capable guardianship, as a whole, needs to be enhanced outside major cities in order to reduce the level of fraud experienced by government, businesses and individuals each year.
