Crime and Punishment in Australia, 1980-2000

Over the twenty years from 1980 to 2000, Australia experienced sustained increases in the incidence of robbery, serious assault, and rape; declines in motor vehicle theft; and stability in homicide and burglary. Persons convicted of homicide, serious assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft receiv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Crime and justice (Chicago, Ill.) Ill.), 2005-01, Vol.33 (33), p.295-330
Main Author: Carcach, Carlos
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assault
Australia
Burglary
Comparative analysis
Crime
Crime Rates
Crime victims
Criminal arrests
Criminal jurisdiction
Criminal justice
Criminal offenses
Criminals
Cross-national analysis
Homicide
Longitudinal studies
National crime surveys
Police
Punishment
Rape
Robbery
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Summary:Over the twenty years from 1980 to 2000, Australia experienced sustained increases in the incidence of robbery, serious assault, and rape; declines in motor vehicle theft; and stability in homicide and burglary. Persons convicted of homicide, serious assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft received longer sentences. The exceptions were robbery and rape. Limited access to uniform national crime statistics and time-series data on crime-related socioeconomic factors makes explaining these trends difficult. Differences in the responses of states and territories to crime and lack of uniform court and prison statistics make identification of the factors underlying the risk of offending complicated. The risk of punishment seems to be negatively associated with crime rates, but trying to explain this apparent relationship is adventurous. Development of uniform and integrated national crime statistics systems remains a priority.
ISSN:0192-3234
2153-0416
DOI:10.1086/655368