Transnational crime constitutes a challenge for even the most advanced industrial nations. The Pacific Islands are culturally, educationally and socially diverse, geographically isolated and sparsely populated. There is a degree of heterogeneity in their respective levels of governance, corruption and law enforcement capacity. Economic weaknesses and their impact upon infrastructure, poverty and general instability may...

Armed robbery stories figure prominently in the media but official statistics suggest that armed robbery has actually declined markedly since the early 2000s. This paper focuses on changes in armed robbery offender profiles by providing an overview of the type of person who commits armed robbery. It describes offenders’ backgrounds, motivations to offend and attitudes...

In 2005 the author was employed as a youth worker in a remote Northern Territory community. In this paper she makes observations about the level of disadvantage evident in the community. She describes the early life experiences and health status of the community, and problems such as substance misuse and involvement with the criminal justice...

This paper reports on a face-to-face survey conducted with 337 small businesses in two communities in Sydney. Chinese businesses were at greater risk of shoplifting and Vietnamese businesses were at greater risk of burglary and vandalism compared with English speaking businesses, while English speaking businesses were at greater risk of robbery and/or verbal abuse and/or...

Australia and China negotiated a treaty on mutual assistance in criminal matters in 2006. Vic Adams considers the treaty and its possible implications in the light of China’s record on the death penalty. The treaty lacks safeguards to ensure Australia is not implicated in executions and could be in breach of a number of other...