How the public sees crime: an Australian survey

Abstract

This second report is the most comprehensive overview of public attitudes to crime which Australia has yet seen. Surveys commissioned by media organisations inevitably suffer from the limitations of topicality - for example, views on drug-pushing when a notorious case is before the public eye or on the question of child neglect when a conviction for manslaughter has just occurred.

The Institute, by surveying attitudes to a comprehensive range of offences, has been able to produce an integrated and cogent series of responses. In some ways they are quite surprising. It is to be hoped that the law-makers take careful note of the results.

References

1. The McNair Anderson and Associates organisation was commissioned by the Australian Institute of Criminology to conduct the survey. The survey was based on scientifically designed multi-stage probability sample ensuring that all Federal electorates were represented in the sampling frame.

2. J. Braithwaite and P. Grabosky, Occupational Health and Safety Enforcement in Australia, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, 1985. https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/archive/archive-137

3 See P. Cashman,'Medical Benefit Fraud', Legal Services Bulletin, Parts 1 and 2, 1982, pp. 58-61 and pp. 116-21 . P.R Wilson, 'Occupational Crime: The Case of Doctors' in D. Chappell and P.R. Wilson, The Australian Criminal Justice system (3rd ed.), Butterworth, Sydney, 1986 (forthcoming).