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The most common type of weapon category used in violent crime in Australia is that of knives. There has been widespread community concern about the use of knives in crime, and particularly about young people carrying or using knives. This is in part due to media attention on recent violent incidents involving young people and knives. Some states have already reformed weapon laws to outlaw the carriage of knives in public, and there are plans for making further restrictions, including restricting young persons' ability to purchase knives.

The contemporary approach to the delivery of community crime prevention work is quite a sophisticated activity when viewed from the perspective of modern management practices. Typically, crime prevention programs are built on the idea of collaborative multi-agency action involving a number of different initiatives and participants. They use varying interventions that are implemented simultaneously or at least in a loosely ordered sequence. As a result, crime prevention programs will frequently operate through partnership arrangements directed at achieving shared outcomes.

In light of the significant strain that alcohol intoxication places on law enforcement agencies in Australia, attention has been focused on the role of police in reducing the burden of alcohol-related problems. There is a growing interest in the capacity of police to prevent, and not just respond to, alcohol-related problems, and a significant body of evidence that identifies best practice in policing licensed premises. Doherty and Roche (2003) offer the following five point plan:

Over the past 10 years, a range of crime prevention strategies have been developed and employed to reduce armed robbery. The main aims of these strategies have been to secure commercial premises to deter armed robbery attempts and to reduce the possible rewards from armed robbery. Combinations of different methods have been used, but they primarily involve techniques based on situational crime prevention.

A roundtable was recently held in Victoria to develop strategies to curb antisocial behaviour, with a focus on violence and public safety—particularly alcohol-related incidents. Attendees included academics, police, health professionals, representatives from the justice system and the co-founder of a violence prevention initiative.

Personal security in public places has become an area of increasing concern to governments in the past 10 years in Australia and overseas. One response has been a significant increase in the use of closed circuit television (CCTV) in densely populated areas such as central business districts and entertainment districts. CCTV is employed as a surveillance measure in such areas to monitor behaviour of individuals and in public spaces as a deterrent and opportunity reduction measure (see AIC 2006).

Graffiti refers to the act of marking property with writing, symbols or graphics and is illegal when produced without consent (White 2001). Types of graffiti include tagging, large and elaborate 'pieces', political graffiti and urban art (the only legal form of graffiti). Each type has distinctive features and motives for creation can include peer status, notoriety and political protest.