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It is common for the media to cast young people as dangerous and delinquent, particularly when those young people derive from marginalized backgrounds. Moral panics are fuelled and sustained by the media in their role as agents of moral indignation. Additionally, the media represent a powerful source of moral regulation, often working against the interests of young people. In this paper, a recent media focus on the 'youth crime crisis' in Queensland, Australia is examined to consider potential ways in which public discourse might move beyond deficit tropes to develop more nuanced and productive conceptualizations of youth. We draw on emergent theorizations of the 'figurations' that define the ways in which 'youth' is understood in public discourse to consider how mediated social imaginaries work to produce representations of young people and frame possibilities for thinking about their place in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the greatest challenges for the juvenile justice system is to successfully reintegrate young offenders back to their communities so that they do not re-offend and return to detention. This challenge is even greater for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth who are over-represented in the Queensland juvenile justice system in terms of interactions with the police, the courts and in detention settings. This paper presents the outcomes of a two-year-longitudinal study which tracked 40 young Indigenous males as they made the transition from detention in North Queensland back to their communities. Over this period the majority of youth arrived at 'undesirable' destinations by re-offending and returning to detention, compared to a smaller cohort who arrived at 'desirable' destinations and desisted from crime. The paper presents qualitative data from the research which focused on gaining the perceptions of these young males by asking them to identify the risks which prevented them from making a successful re-entry back to their communities compared to those who desisted from further offending behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) has considerable support among the built environment professions. Yet the underlying assumptions on which it is based have rarely been evaluated to assess their effectiveness or efficacy. This paper reports the development and use of a scale that measured the actual levels of "incidental" CPTED in two residential areas in Gold Coast, Australia. The scale was administered in parallel with a victimization and social attitude survey. Analysis based on the combination of the two suggests that CPTED measures may have some effect on reducing victimization, particularly the kind of CPTED measures that apply to the group of dwellings on a single street, but the effect on fear of crime is surprisingly limited. It also indicates that there is potential in the application of such a scale in a wider assessment of the effectiveness of operationalizing CPTED design measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an analysis of participation rates and types of delinquent behaviour using self-reported offending data from school students and apprehended juvenile offenders in Brisbane (n = 903) and in Shanghai (n = 565).The rate of participation in most categories of offending in the Brisbane sample was higher than in the Shanghai sample, with Brisbane school students being much more likely than Shanghai students to report at least one type of offence (85.8% vs. 28.8%). However, factor analyses revealed a common crime pattern across both samples, with behaviours grouping into theft, property-related offences, fighting, and disturbing public order. Brisbane school respondents were more likely than their Shanghai counterparts to commit multiple types of offences. Co-offending peaked at ages 15-16 in Brisbane and 17-18 in Shanghai, but was more common in the Shanghai sample than in the Brisbane sample. It is argued that compared with Australian young people there is a greater presence of social institutions in the lives of Chinese adolescents in the form of family, community and state controls, and that these mostly informal control systems appear to have been successful so far in containing the criminogenic impacts of rapid social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of a combined cross-sectional/time-series sample of records of the activities of patrol officers, reports of breaches of fisheries regulations, and associated court records in Queensland lends support to the hypothesis that economic factors are important in determining crime rates. An increase in the probability of apprehension, higher penalties, and reduced delays before cases are heard in court are predicted to reduce crime rates. The analysis also identifies a loss of reputation effect which suggests that moral and social factors are also relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Night‐time entertainment precincts (NEP) are the site of a disproportionate amount of alcohol‐related violence, injuries and anti‐social behaviour. To combat this the Queensland government introduced patron bans in October 2014, giving police the power to exclude individuals from NEPs and preventing patrons from remaining in or entering the designated area or from designated premises for the ban duration. Mandatory identification scanners within licensed venues were also introduced, which are used to enforce patron bans. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of police‐issued 10‐day patron bans for preventing alcohol‐related violence or anti‐social behaviour occurring within NEPs during high‐alcohol hours. Methods: Queensland's largest NEPs; Brisbane central business district, Fortitude Valley and Surfers Paradise central business district; were examined. Time‐series autoregressive integrated moving average analyses were used to estimate the influence of 10‐day patron bans on police‐recorded serious assaults, common assaults and good order offences. Analyses controlled for the introduction of relevant policy and identification scanners. Results: The number of police‐issued patron bans did not significantly predict changes in serious assault, common assault or good order offence trends the weekend following the ban (within the 10‐day period). Discussion and Conclusions: The current study was unable to find evidence indicating that 10‐day patron bans reduced alcohol‐related harms experienced in Queensland's largest NEPs in the short term. Further research needs to be conducted examining other types of patron bans, particularly longer bans issued in other jurisdictions or by licensees, and whether bans change individual's behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from perspectives emphasizing environmental crime event components, this study identifies the predictors and contexts of unsolved and solved sexual offenses against women by strangers. Police data were obtained from 542 cases in Queensland. Hierarchical logistical regression was adopted to analyze variables relating to situational, contextual, and offender–victim interaction elements. Common contexts were examined using conjunctive analysis. Cases were significantly likely to remain unsolved if the offender used minimal force, or if the victim was walking outside at the time of initial contact. Conversely, solved cases were significantly associated with offender prior consumption of alcohol/drugs, bystander presence, and vehicle use. Crimes with higher criminal "effectiveness" and lower levels of victim interaction tended to be associated with unsolved sexual offenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the article "Pharmaceutical Sales of Pseudoephedrine: The Impact of Electronic Tracking Systems on Methamphetamine Crime Incidents" by L. Mazerolle, I. McGuffog, J. Ferris, and M. Chamlin which appears in the same issue of the journal. It states that the emergence of the international importation of methamphetamine (meth) may negate the need to an electronic tracking system for precursor drugs that are used to produce meth in Australia. Local law enforcement is assessed.

Background: Restrictive practices on alcohol sales in entertainment districts have been introduced to reduce alcohol-related violence in youth. On 1st July 2016, the Queensland State Government (Australia) imposed a 2-hour reduction in trading hours for alcohol sales in venues within specific night-time entertainment districts (NEDS; from 5am to 3am), a reduction in maximum trading hours for venues outside NEDs (with a maximum 2am closing time), the banning of ‘rapid intoxication drinks’ (e.g. shots) after 12am, and no new approvals for trading hours beyond 10pm for the sale of takeaway alcohol. No independent study has evaluated general levels of intoxication, crowd numbers, fear of violence, and illicit substance use as people enter and exit NEDS, both before and after the introduction of restrictive legislation. Further, no study has assessed the impact using matched times of the year in a controlled study and also assessed actual assault rates as recorded by the police. Method: We conducted 3 studies–randomly breath-testing patrons for alcohol, as they entered and exited NEDs. Study 1 assessed patrons’ (n = 807) breath approximated blood alcohol concentration (BrAC) and predictions of how the legislation would change their drinking habits before the legislation was enacted. Study 2 assessed crime statistics and patrons’ BrAC levels and drug taking reports on an equivalent night, one year apart–before (n = 497) and after (n = 406) the new legislation. Study 3 was a test of the generalisation of Study 2 with two months of survey and BrAC data collected as people entered and exited the NEDs over two consecutive years before (n = 652 and n = 155) and one year after (n = 460) the new legislation. In Study 3 we also collected crime statistics and data on people leaving the entertainment district one year before (n = 502) and one year after (n = 514) the legislative change. Findings: People predicted that the legislation would lead to them drinking more alcohol before they entered town or make little change to their drinking habits. Baseline data over the 2 years before the legislation (Study 3) demonstrated stable preloading rates and BrAC at entry to the NEDs. However, after the introduction of the legislation patrons entered the NEDs systematically later and increased their alcohol preloading. People were substantially more inebriated as they entered the NEDs after the legislative change, with approximately 50% fewer people not preloading after the new laws. Exit BrAC was less consistent but showed some evidence of an increase. Crime statistics and patrons’ self-reported experiences of violence did not change. Interpretation: Legislation that does not specifically adapt to the cultural shift of preloading and take local conditions into account will be unsuccessful in reducing alcohol consumption. Such legislation is unlikely to meaningfully change assault rates in youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) are identified in Australia and internationally as being heavily involved in organised crime and/or as being criminal organisations. However, academic studies have shown that OMCG members are involved in organised crime to varying extents; this differs between clubs and across jurisdictions. To date, Australian studies of OMCGs are rare. Despite this, Australian governments target OMCGs as key players in organised crime. This study contributes to the existing literature by analysing OMCGs' criminality in one Australian jurisdiction – Queensland. It draws on rich qualitative data to determine whether and to what extent Queensland's OMCGs are involved in serious crime, organised crime and/or are operating as criminal organisations. The study finds that Queensland's OMCG members participate in serious crime at a higher rate than the general public, but that there are few examples of organised crime. There is little to no evidence of OMCGs acting as criminal organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims Electronic tracking systems (ETS) are used extensively in pharmacies across the United States and Australia to control suspicious sales of pseudoephedrine. This study measures the impact of one ETS-Project STOP-on the capacity of police to reduce production, supply and possession of methamphetamine. Design Using official police data of incidents of production, supply and possession from January 1996 to December 2011 ( n = 192 data points/months over 16 years), we used a quasi-experimental, time-series approach. Setting The State of Queensland, Australia. Participants No individual participants are included in the study. The unit of analysis is reported police incidents. Measurements The study examines the impact of the ETS on production ( n = 5938 incidents), drug supply and trafficking ( n = 20 094 incidents) and drug possession or use ( n = 118 926) of methamphetamine. Findings Introduction of the ETS in November 2005 was associated with an insignificant decrease ( P = 0.15) in the production of methamphetamine. The intervention was associated with a statistically significant increase in supply incidents ( P = 0.0001). There was no statistically significant effect on the incidence of possession ( P = 0.59). Conclusions Electronic tracking systems can reduce the capacity of people to produce methamphetamine domestically, but seem unlikely to affect other aspects of the methamphetamine problem such as possession, distribution and importation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about Stories In a Park, a project for Queensland Health in the suburb of Eagleby, about 35km from Brisbane, Queensland and midway between the Brisbane CBD and Southport CBD. Eagleby is a small residential suburb with about 60 per cent low density public housing. Established in the 1980s, it has a population of about 8500 people and virtually no jobs. In the Queensland Government's listing of disadvantaged places, Eagleby qualifies in the top 13. It has high levels of unemployment and crime involving young people, high turnovers in the school system and a large population of single parents and public tenants.

A model to explain fear of crime in Queensland is developed and fitted to data from the 1991 Queensland Crime Victims Survey. Fear of crime is measured from the answers to the question about respondents' feelings of safety when walking alone in their area after dark. The results suggest that factors such as gender, age, poverty, educational level, labor force status, level of incivility in the area, perceived amount of crime in the area, and neighborhood cohesion all make an impact on fear of crime in a way that is consistent with the theory. The results also show that fear of crime in Queensland is explained by very concrete factors that can be subject to intervention and policy formulation by relevant bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected social life. In efforts to reduce the spread of the virus, countries around the world implemented social restrictions, including social distancing, working from home, and the shuttering of numerous businesses. These social restrictions have also affected crime rates. In this study, we investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the frequency of offending (crimes include property, violent, mischief, and miscellaneous) in Queensland, Australia. In particular, we examine this impact across numerous settings, including rural, regional and urban. We measure these shifts across the restriction period, as well as the staged relaxation of these restrictions. In order to measure impact of this period we use structural break tests. In general, we find that criminal offences have significantly decreased during the initial lockdown, but as expected, increased once social restrictions were relaxed. These findings were consistent across Queensland's districts, save for two areas. We discuss how these findings are important for criminal justice and social service practitioners when operating within an extraordinary event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]