BeccariaPortal

AIC: New research examines homicide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women

Link to: Homicide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released a Statistical Bulletin from the National Homicide Monitoring Program: Homicide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. The report shows that:

Between 1989–90 and 2022–23, there were 473 incidents of homicide in Australia where at least one victim was an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander woman.
Indigenous women experience a homicide victimisation rate between two and seven times greater than the national homicide rate.
Seventy-two percent (n=328) of victims were killed by their current or former intimate partner.
Most offenders had a history of domestic and family violence. Of the 69 offenders between 2016–17 and 2022–23 (where data were available), two-thirds (67%, n=46) had a history of domestic and family violence.

P https://www.aic.gov.au/about-us/web-privacy-policy-summary

National Office for Victims

Public Safety Canada’s National Office for Victims (NOV) provides information and referrals to victims of crime where the offender has been convicted and received a federal sentence of two years or more. The office is always seeking new ways of reaching communities in order to:

inform them of their rights under the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights Act; and
share information regarding federal corrections and conditional release.

An important part of their mandate is to write, publish and distribute information products to help victims understand and navigate the federal corrections and conditional release system in Canada. In 2022, NOV released the Victims of Crime: Staying Informed book in Atikamekw. This booklet is also available in 20 other languages, including:

English ● French ● Denesuline ● Innu ● Inuktitut ● Mi’kmaq ● Ojibway ● Oji-Cree ● Plain Cree ● Arabic Cantonese ● Italian ● Spanish ● Korean ● Mandarin ● Farsi ● Tagalog ● Urdu ● Punjabi ● Russian

In 2021, the office also released a booklet online entitled “Sentence Calculation – An Explanation of the Basics of Sentence Calculation with Examples” with five Fact Sheets that explain the basic sentence calculation rules for federal offenders.

Other publications available online and in hard copy, free of change, include:

● An Information Guide to Assist Victims

● Helping Victims Prepare for the Release of a Federal Offender

● Overview of Federal Corrections and Criminal Justice – Victim-Centred Information and Assistance

To order free hardcopies of any of these publications, please complete this publication form.

AIC: New research explores using cloud-based technology for child sexual abuse investigations

Link to: Benefits and risks of implementing cloud-based technology for child sexual abuse investigations in Australia

A new AIC study conducted by the University of Adelaide assesses the benefits of using cloud-based technologies in child sexual abuse investigations.

The quantity of child abuse material being confiscated and processed during criminal investigations presents budgetary and computing resource challenges, while also limiting inter-agency collaboration.
The paper reviews the discrete benefits of cloud-based infrastructures and assesses the perceived risks associated with their use.
It demonstrates how a shared responsibility model can work in practice for child abuse investigations by developing a secure cloud environment in partnership with a cloud-based infrastructure provider.

Only a few days left to register: the CEP & EuroPris workshop on Foreign Nationals Deadline 13 October

....a crucial workshop in collaboration with the EuroPris and kindly hosted by the Federal Ministry of Justice of Austria, as we address one of the most significant issues facing European prison systems today—Foreign National Offenders (FNOs).

As migration and global political shifts continue to impact Europe, the number and proportion of FNOs in prisons are rising, bringing unique challenges to prison and probation services. That being said, an FNO in one country is a citizen imprisoned abroad in another.

This dual perspective is central to the work of EuroPris and CEP’ Foreign Nationals in Prison and Probation (FNPP) Expert Group.

This workshop from 29-30 October 2024, will bring together professionals from across Europe, including those in prison, probation, and NGOs, to engage in presentations, discussions, and knowledge-sharing on this increasingly important area of criminal justice policy.

>> More information

New AIC report reviews sexual violence and abuse offences across Australia

Link to: National review of child sexual abuse and sexual assault legislation in Australia

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released new research that reviews statutory offences for sexual violence and abuse in Australia. The comprehensive review shows:

Consent provisions across all Australian jurisdictions incorporate a communicative model of consent, although there is greater variation in how and to what extent consent provisions incorporate an affirmative model of consent.
There is significant overall consistency across Australian jurisdictions in provisions for contact sexual offences, image-based sexual offences and child sexual abuse material offences, but less consistency in provisions criminalising conduct to enable unlawful sexual conduct, unlawful sexual conduct against specific groups, and unlawful sexual conduct under particular circumstances.

Consultations with stakeholders and victims and survivors suggest ongoing gaps and inconsistencies in legislation regarding offences for persistent sexual abuse of a child, failing to report and protect children from sexual abuse, and non-consensual tampering with or removal of contraception, or ‘stealthing’.

Please see our Privacy Policy at https://www.aic.gov.au/about-us/web-privacy-policy-summary

AIC: New research examines support for different types of protests

Link to: An experimental study of support for protest causes and tactics and the influence of conspiratorial beliefs

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released a new Trends & issues paper that uses a randomised survey experiment involving 13,301 online Australians to measure support for environmental, anti-lockdown and sovereign citizen protests.

Respondents were randomly allocated to one of three groups presented with different protest tactics—peaceful marching, disrupting traffic and violent clashes with police.
Respondents were significantly more likely to oppose violent or disruptive protests than peaceful protests, regardless of the issue or movement in question. The strongest opposition was to anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination protests. Protests about environmental issues had the most support.
The effect of conspiratorial beliefs on support for protests varied by protest cause. Belief in conspiracy theories increased support for protest violence, relative to other tactics. Support for certain protest causes and tactics is shaped by a person’s ideological beliefs.

Last few days to register for the CEP 13th Electronic Monitoring conference

3-5 December 2024, Cascais (Lisbon), Portugal
>>Registration deadline 3 November

It is time for the 13th edition of the Electronic Monitoring Conference. This year’s theme is ‘Beyond Control – Electronic Monitoring and Prevention’. Check out the programme and register now!

Learn more

>>Meet the preparatory group of the 13th Electronic monitoring

Announcing the AIC 2025 Conference - Reducing online harms

We’re pleased to announce the AIC 2025 Conference will take place in Canberra on 11-12 March 2025. The theme of this year’s event will be Reducing online harms and will present the latest research on the changing nature of online harms and approaches to preventing, disrupting and mitigating those harms, as well as approaches to support victim / survivor recovery.

Confirmed sessions include:

Scams and fraud
Ransomware
Online radicalisation and conspiracy theories
Sextortion
Harms from adult-based platforms
Harms from AI
The internet and misogyny
Prevention of online harm
Victim / survivor recovery

Further information and tickets can be obtained at our event page.

News