News

Link to: Sexual extortion of Australian adolescents: Results from a national survey

New research from the Australian Institute of Criminology examined sexual extortion victimisation by conducting a survey of 1,953 adolescents aged 16 to 18 years residing in Australia, finding that:

• Over one in 10 of the adolescents surveyed had been sexually extorted in their lifetime (11.3%), most of whom (88.2%) were under the age of 18 when victimised.
• Boys and girls were equally likely to be sexually extorted, but male victims were more likely to receive financial demands and to be targeted by someone they had only met online.
• Preventing children from being sexually extorted should be a priority for social media and messaging platforms, and should be a collaborative effort across multiple sectors.
   

Read the AIC media release

Link to: Developing a harm index for individual victims of cybercrime

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released a Trends & issues paper that uses data from the Australian Cybercrime Survey to develop a harm index for individual victims of cybercrime.

• A harm score was developed and validated using a 34-item measure of practical, health, social, financial and legal impacts from cybercrime. The index comprises harm scores for 17 common cybercrimes and provides a measure of the relative severity of different types of online crime.
• Cybercrime harm is concentrated among certain victims, with 10.9 percent of victims accounting for 57.7 percent of the harm to all victims who completed the survey. Repeat victims who experienced multiple types of cybercrime were disproportionately impacted and should be prioritised for intervention.

The cybercrime harm index can help guide prevention and response efforts, monitor the impact of cybercrime over time, and measure the impact of prevention efforts on harm to victims.

Copyright © 2025 Australian Institute of Criminology, All rights reserved

The conference will be held on 11 – 12  March 2025 in Canberra. Confirmed sessions include:

• Scams and fraud
• Online sexual violence
• Online radicalisation / Conspiracy theories
• Victim / Survivor recovery
• Ransomware and cybercrime impacting businesses
• Internet and misogyny
• Prevention of online harm
• Sextortion
• Artificial Intelligence
• Online enablement of human trafficking, modern slavery and sexual exploitation
• Image-based abuse
• Harms from pornography 

AIC 2025 Conference booking page.

Draft program: AIC 2025 Conference: Reducing online harms

A significant portion of all crime is committed by recidivists. Punishments, in particular prison sentences, are not always effective at preventing re-offending. This webinar and related toolbox focuses on programmes during and following incarceration, and identifies risks for re-offending and factors for a successful rehabilitation and desistance. 

The webinar takes place on Friday 21 February 2025 between 10:30 - 11:30 CET. Participation is free, but registration is mandatory. The webinar will be hosted via Teams. After registration, an automatic confirmation email will be sent to you from @ibzfgovbe.