NCJ Number
186557
Date Published
May 2000
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study reports on the findings of a survey of a sample of residents in New South Wales (Australia) that was designed to determine whether or not they had been offered stolen goods.
Abstract
The survey was conducted on behalf of the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics. Over 5,000 people from New South Wales were interviewed over the telephone. The main sample consisted of 4,425 people randomly selected from New South Wales; an additional sample consisted of 994 people randomly selected from five local government areas that have high crime rates. All respondents were aged 14 years old or above. Five percent of respondents said they had been offered stolen goods in the last year. This finding suggests that over a quarter of a million people in New South Wales may be involved in receiving stolen goods, with approximately two-thirds of those offered stolen goods being offered them more than once in the last year. The factors that were related to whether or not someone was offered stolen goods were age, gender, and area, with men in their twenties living in a high-crime area being the most likely people to be offered stolen goods. Twenty-two percent of respondents in this category said they had been offered stolen goods in the last year. A more surprising outcome was that socioeconomic factors had little effect on whether or not someone was offered stolen goods. Only 7 percent of incidents were reported to the police. Those who did not report such incidents indicated they did not believe that reporting it would accomplish much. 8 tables, 9 figures, 13 notes, and 17 references, and survey questionnaire