Should someone with a criminal record be able to stand for political office? What about someone actually in jail? Should it depend on their crime? This Current Issues Brief outlines the issues, and reviews some of the many examples of political figures who have had both crime and candidacy in their careers.

One way of reducing the number of burglaries and thefts may be to make the disposal of stolen property more difficult. In order to intervene in this illegal trade, authorities need to know what burglars and thieves do with the property they steal. With this in mind, the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety...

This report discusses the technical details of the design, conduct and estimation methods of the Australian component of the 2000 International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS). Development of the ICVS commenced in 1987; its primary goal was to further international comparative research. The first survey was conducted in 1989 and 16 countries participated. Since then the...

In this report Roza Lozusic explores what youth gangs are, how and why they form, and how they're preceived by the public. She examines the ethnic gang debate in NSW, and outlines the legislative and other initiatives targeted at gangs, in particular those aimed at preventing the formation of youth gangs and youth gang criminal...

This paper argues it is well known that there is no concensus with respect to the relationship between unemployment and crime. As well, there is very little research on the linkages between crime and educational experiences of young people. In this paper the authors show a very strong positive relationship between criminal activity and the...