Tourism and Crime

• NCJ Number: 91302
• Author(s): D J Walmsley; R M Boskovic; J J Pilgram
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 137 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Australian Research Council
• Corporate Author: University of New England
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This study examines the influence of tourism on crime in Australia, using reported crime from selected tourism areas and comparing it with 'control' nontourism areas.

Abstract

The north coast of New South Wales, which covers about the same area as the Lismore Police District, was selected as the study area because of its standing as one of the State's prominent tourist areas. The study period was 1971-79. The data sources were the New South Wales Police Department computer printout of serious crimes and the crime information reports as well as occurrence pad entries, traffic accident reports, and charge books kept at three tourist resorts. Data for the tourist centers and the 'control' towns were pooled to form two groups that could be compared by nonparametric statistical tests. Relative to the 'control' towns, tourist centers had significantly fewer sexual offenses and drug offenses but significantly more 'other theft' and breaking and entering offenses. Tourist areas also had significantly more offenses committed in daytime, more local residents among the victims, and victims of higher socioeconomic status. The tourist centers also had significantly more crimes committed by locals and fewer committed by persons under 18 years old. Further, in tourist areas, it took significantly longer to apprehend an offender than in the nontourist areas. Such was the variability in the data and the resultant patterns that it was impossible to identify criminogenic environments. Consequently, there are no obvious environmental design measures that can be suggested to mitigate crime rates. Neither are there any suggestions to be made regarding police manpower planning, except for the obvious need for flexibility in resource allocation due to variability in crime from place to place, year to year, and month to month. The appendixes provide calculation of per capita crime rates and discuss the variability in the data, the coding sheet, coding details, and statistical testing. Seventy bibliographic entries are provided.