NCJ Number
74678
Date Published
1980
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Crime prevention planning by the Australian Police is discussed with special references to local conditions and to problems caused by the police's administrative straucture and ambivalent public attitudes.
Abstract
Crime prevention planning by the Australian police is explored on a national scale, rather than at the State or local level. Unique social problems (e.g., a population largely descended from convicts, hostile Aboriginal tribes, and large tracts of sparsely-settled land with poor communications) have kept the Australian police busy with day-to-day-operations from the day it was established, and unable to formulate long-range plans of any kind. such constraints as funding (the Australian police is funded solely by the Government), staff-size, and lack of personnel trained in cost-benefit analysis and evaluation techniques, have so far prevented crime prevention planning. A national committee, formed to coordinate preparations for the Sixth United Nations congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, did draft a list of suggestions for police crime prevention planning, but none of the suggestions appear likely to be implemented. Public reluctance to allow any intrusions into the private rights of individuals is another negative factor; citizens object even to such minor regulations as that against leaving keys in the ignition of automobiles during the driver's absence. However, Australian police forces are assisted by laws specifically designed to prevent crime, and each police unit has a small crime prevention bureau providing customer services such as addressing communty groups and educating parents and children on the dangers of child molesters. Additionally, some worthwhile police crime prevention planning has occurred at the State and local level.