DEVELOPMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN CRIME VICTIMISATION SURVEYS

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DEVELOPMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN CRIME VICTIMISATION
SURVEYS
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Types of Surveys

• National Crime and Safety Survey (3 yearly -
  2005)
• Personal Safety Survey (Violence) (irregular
  2005)
• General Social Survey (irregular - 2006)
• National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander
  Survey (irregular)
• National Survey of Community Satisfaction of
  Policing (Qtrly)
• ICVS (irregular)
• IVAWS (irregular)

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Crime and Safety Survey Offences

• Collects information from households and
  individuals about experience of selected crimes,
  reporting behaviour to police and crime related
  risk factors
• Robbery (break in, attempted break ins)
• Theft of Motor Vehicles
• Assault
• Sexual Assault
• Fear of crime
• Neighbourhood crime problems

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Crime and Safety Survey Content

• What problems from crime/public nuisance are
  there in neighbourhood?
• How safe/unsafe do you feel at home by yourself
  during the day?
• safe/unsafe at home by yourself after dark?
• Did an offence occur?
• How many times?
• When/where did the most recent offence occur?
• Weapon Used?

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Content continued

• Physically injured?
• Saw the offender?
• How many offenders?
• Age/sex of offender?
• Did you know the offender?
• Location of offence?
• Reactions of incident by victim?
• Force/violence used?
• Attempt to try to use/threaten to use violence
  against victim

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Content continued

• Time of day/day of week
• Did you tell police about most offence?
• Reason police not told?
• How reported to police - in person, phone, etc
• What did the offenders do?
• Do you consider this to be a crime?

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Survey Sample

• Runs off the labour force survey
• 54,000 persons
• 27,000 households
• 76 response rate (2002 survey)
• 1 person for household crimes
• all persons aged 15 for personal crimes
• all persons aged 18 for sexual assault

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Crime Statistics Survey Review

• Strong demand for crime and safety survey data in
  Australia
• Users have asked ABS to consider options to
  improve survey methods and adopt a more
  integrated approach to crime and safety surveys
• Main issues for users are
• Freqency - broad annual headline indicators of
  crime
• responsiveness - need to handle new and emerging
  areas of crime
• Flexibility - accommodate core and optional
  modules to respond to emerging issues
• Geography - small area data

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Survey Review Findings

• Current content of NCSS appears to be
  satisfactory
• Sexual Assault and Family Violence flagged as key
  policy priority areas by government
• Need to maintain time series
• Flexibility
• Incorporate new and emerging areas of crime
• State/territory data as a minimum
• Need for broad annual headline indicators of crime

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Demand for new and emerging crimes

• New and emerging content
• Business victimisation (including e-crime)
• Internet scams
• Fraud (consumer, identity and superannuation
  fraud)
• Other deception offences
• Vandalism
• Theft from Motor Vehicles

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new and emerging crimes continued

• Theft of mobile phones
• Juvenile crime
• Racially based assault
• Risk factors to victimsation
• more information about demographics of victims
  and offenders, relationship of victim to offender
  and location
• more information on high risk population groups
  (indigenous, recent immigrants, people with
  mental illnesses, prisoners, homeless, etc)
• model crime and safety data with other survey
  data or administrative data (e.g. police data)

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• Self reported crimes
• interest in knowing about self reported crimes by
  offenders
• similar to questions asked in our Indigenous
  survey
• Indigenous statistics
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population
• Indigenous people account for a small part of the
  population but per head of population have higher
  imprisonment rates, etc

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Frequency

• Annual headline indicators of crime
• Indicators would help them to develop, implement
  and measure new policies and programs around fear
  of crime in the community and reduction in crime
• Implement strategies for downstream effects on
  criminal justice system (courts and prisons)
• Indicators would include a limited set of
  household and personal crimes, basic demographic
  data, perceptions of crime and safety, reporting
  to police
• Police agencies have an interest in indicators to
  assist in operational policing strategies
• Detailed characteristics to be collected less
  frequently

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Where to from here with the review?

• Further consultation with users to further
  understand specific user need
• User needs will be factored into the ABS
  Household Survey Review Program to determine
  priorities for our future social statistics
  program (conducted during 2006)
• Crime statistics will compete with other social
  statistics demands

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