The term 'firearm offence' captures a broad spectrum of offending behaviour, from insecure storage of firearms to use in the commission of a violent crime, and hence a similarly broad spectrum of criminal conduct. The primary legislative framework for sentencing of firearm offences is based on enacted legislation in each jurisdiction that defines specific firearm-related...

This report presents findings of the sixteenth year of national homicide data collection, and provides an account of the characteristics of victims and offenders of homicide, as well as the circumstances of the incidents for the 2004-05 financial year. Jurisdictional breakdowns are provided for comparative purposes. The year recorded a total of 249 incidents of...

Building on earlier research undertaken at the Australian Institute of Criminology (Pinto & Wilson 1990), the current research explores the serial murder phenomenon in Australia using data collected as part of the Institute's National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP). Results show that between July 1989 and June 2006, there were 11 groupings of serial murders identified...

Stolen firearms represent a very real source of weapons for diversion into the illegitimate firearms market and hence, potential use in criminal activities. This report represents the first in the National Firearms Theft Monitoring Program (NFTMP) series, and builds on earlier AIC research on firearms theft. This report describes firearms thefts reported to police between...

The use of fire in homicide is a particularly heinous crime, involving burning of the victim before or after death. It is thought to be a relatively rare phenomenon and, as such, little is known about its nature and extent in Australia. Over a 16-year period there have been 4,943 homicide incidents in Australia; of...