Identity crime and misuse in Australia: results of the 2013 online survey

Abstract: Identity crime and misuse of personal information affect all sectors in Australia and cost individuals, business and government many millions of dollars annually. In May 2013, in order to explore the nature and scope of identity crime and misuse in Australia, the Australian Institute of Criminology was commissioned by the Attorney-General’s Department to undertake a national survey. This report presents the results of the survey. The findings confirm prior research that has found that identity crime affects a relatively high proportion of Australians who report substantial financial and other impacts

Identity crime and misuse in Australia: results of the 2014 online survey

Misuse of personal information lies at the heart of identity crime and continues to affect all sectors of the Australian community. Abstract To understand the trends associated with identity crime and misuse in Australia, the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) was, in 2014, commissioned by the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department to undertake a national survey of the problem for the second time. The study is one of a series of initiatives being implemented as part of the National Identity Security Strategy, Australia’s national response to enhancing identity security, which seeks to prevent identity crime and misuse, contribute to national security and facilitate the benefits of the digital economy

Counting the costs of crime in Australia: a 2011 estimate

This report estimates the costs of crime for the calendar year 2011. Executive summary This report seeks to estimate how much crime costs the Australian economy by calculating the number of crimes that come to the attention of the authorities and, using crime victimisation survey data, the number of crimes that are not recorded officially. A dollar figure is then calculated for each estimated crime event and an indication given of the total cost of each specific crime type in terms of actual loss, intangible losses, loss of output caused through the criminal conduct and other related costs such as medical expenses, where relevant. Added to these costs are the costs of preventing and responding to crime in the community including the costs of maintaining the criminal justice system agencies of police, prosecution, courts and correctional agencies, as well as a proportion of the costs of Australian and state and territory government agencies that have crime-related functions. Finally, a deduction is made for the value of property recovered in the case of property crime, as well as the amount of funds recovered from criminals under federal, state and territory proceeds of crime legislation. More detailed information about how each of these estimates was derived is provided in the main body of the report. Official attention paid to specific crime types, particularly drug-related crime and organised crime, affects both the reporting rate and also the cost of policing and correctional responses. In this sense, individual crime type costs and prevention and response costs are not mutually exclusive. Arguably, as individual crime types attract more attention, reporting rates increase and prevention and control of the crimes in question are seen as being deserving of increased resource

Research and Practice in Corruption: An Introduction

This draft chapter that has been published by Edward Elgar Publishing in Handbook of Global Research and Practice in Corruption Edited by Adam Graycar and Russell G. Smith published in 2011’ has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781849805032.0000

p-Wave stabilization of three-dimensional Bose-Fermi solitons

We explore bright soliton solutions of ultracold Bose-Fermi gases, showing that the presence of p-wave interactions can remove the usual collapse instability and support stable soliton solutions that are global energy minima. A variational model that incorporates the relevant s- and p-wave interactions in the system is established analytically and solved numerically to probe the dependencies of the solitons on key experimental parameters. Under attractive s-wave interactions, bright solitons exist only as meta-stable states susceptible to collapse. Remarkably, the presence of repulsive p-wave interactions alleviates this collapse instability. This dramatically widens the range of experimentally-achievable soliton solutions and indicates greatly enhanced robustness. While we focus specifically on the boson-fermion pairing of 87Rb and 40K, the stabilization inferred by repulsive p-wave interactions should apply to the wider remit of ultracold Bose-Fermi mixtures.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Evaluating the Australasian Consumer Fraud Awareness Month, 2007

As part of a global effort to fight mass-marketed consumer scams, consumer protection agencies in 33 western countries have participated in a month of fraud prevention activities each year to raise awareness of the problem and to provide advice to consumers on how to avoid being victimised. In Australia and New Zealand, nineteen government agencies now comprise the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT) that conducted a campaign in March 2007, the theme of which was ‘Scams Target You – Protect Yourself’. This paper provides an evaluation of the impact of the activities undertaken by the Taskforce, including the effect that the extensive publicity had on the official reporting of scams by consumers. The results of an online survey of 841 self-selected respondents are also presented. It is concluded that the campaign was highly effective in raising consumer awareness, with reporting rates increasing substantially throughout the period of the campaign

Organised crime and public sector corruption

Foreword: In 2006, the Australian Government introduced the Anti-money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) which increased regulatory controls over businesses potentially able to facilitate organised criminal activities such as money laundering. The implementation of tougher legislation and associated law enforcement interventions may result in criminal organisations adjusting their tactics in order to continue their activities without detection. In this paper, the risk and potential impact of tactical displacement by organised criminals is discussed with regard to the potential for increased attempts by organised crime groups to corrupt public servants. There is a paucity of research exploring the nature and extent of public sector corruption committed by organised crime groups. This discussion is informed by literature on ‘crime scripts’ originally developed by Cornish (1994) and the 5I’s crime prevention framework developed by Ekblom (2011). Making use of public-source information about the commission of such crimes, as exemplified in two recent corruption cases, some intervention strategies are proposed that may be effective in reducing the risks of corruption of public sector officials by organised crime groups in Australia

Raising public awareness of consumer fraud in Australia

As part of a global effort to fight mass-marketed consumer scams, each year consumer protection agencies in 33 western countries participate in a month of fraud prevention activities to raise awareness of the problem and to provide advice to consumers on how to avoid being victimised. In Australia and New Zealand, 19 government agencies comprise the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT), which conducted a campaign in March 2007 with the theme \u27Scams target you - protect yourself\u27. This paper describes the activities undertaken by the ACFT and assesses the impact that the publicity had on official reporting of scams by consumers. The results of an online survey of 841 self-selected respondents are also presented. It is concluded that the campaign was highly effective in raising consumer awareness, with reporting rates increasing substantially throughout the period of the campaign. &nbsp