Criminology Research Council grant ; (4/88)
This study sought to measure and evaluate the incidence of crime in Geelong over the years 1982-87. The data for this study were obtained from a quota sample of 1957 crime arrest reports, gleaned from Geelong CIB records. The sample chosen comprised 31 categories of crime, each chosen systematically, at random, and in accordance with varying selection schedules. The study sought to compare the crime rates for different people according to the key variables of sex, age, ethnicity and social class.
In conjunction with 1981 and 1986 census data on Geelong's population, the survey data on crime arrests in the study were used to develop rates per thousand arrests for crime, and rates per thousand arrests for offenders, for each of Geelong's suburbs and regional townships.
The survey findings were subsequently compared with the results obtained from a similar study conducted by Biles and Copeland in 1976 for the Australian Institute of Criminology. This current study is more than a retrospective view of crime in Geelong; it identified in some detail the more recent trends in the growth and decline of crime and offender rates in the Geelong region.