re: where is the do-gooders brick 50
in post 20629 fallguy referred to crime rates and a web site. I recommend a browse of the who;e site referred to at:- http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/ethnicity-crime There are a number of chapters and one of them refers to Victorian data only because Vic was the only state gathering data on ethnicity of those perpetuating crime. Interpreting the data is problematical because of definitions. What is a crime?
Part of the intro to the Chapter (4) says There is no way of knowing the background, including the country of birth, of every one who commits a crime in Australia. A comparatively large number of offences, as research and surveys over the last 25 years have revealed, is never reported to the authorities and as such generate no records of their occurrence. This number is close to 60 per cent of all offences that occur in a community.75 Even those that are reported to the police not all are recorded. Investigations of offences are only able to solve by apprehension a relatively small proportion of recorded offences. As an example consider the data for Victoria (Victoria is the only jurisdiction in Australia which publishes place of birth information of persons processed by the State police). The 1996 Victorian Crime Victimisation Survey76 reveals that there were 342,100 victimisations (the offences included in the survey were break and enter, attempted break and enter, motor vehicle theft, assault, sexual assault, and robbery) in Victoria of which 154,400 were reported to the police. The police recorded in 1996-97 a total of 139,629 offences, falling in the above categories. Only 38,380 of these recorded offences were solved by the Victoria police, that is equal to 11.2 per cent of all victimisations or 27.5 per cent of recorded offences. The point is, the background of who committed these offences is known of perpetrators of solved offences only. Therefore, all those arrested and processed by the Victoria police in that year represent a small proportion offenders who commit crime. Victoria police processed a total 139,852 alleged offenders (not distinct offenders) in 1996-97 and the country of birth details were available for 88.5 per cent of these offenders. Until 1995 the Office of Crime Statistics, South Australia used to publish country of birth details of alleged offenders tried at the Magistrates and Supreme Courts. But birth place details could be identified for only about 50 per cent of the alleged offenders. The above office, in 1996, decided not to publish the ethnicity details because they were ‘misused’. Western Australia Police have begun publishing ethnicity or ethnic appearance of alleged offenders. Such detail is based on observation or description of an alleged offender. The WA Police have identified 10 ethnic groups: Aboriginal, Asian, Caucasian, Indian, Latin, Negroid, Polynesian, Middle Eastern, Southern European, and South and Central American. The previous chapters have revealed the following in respect of the relationship between foreign-born and crime in Australia: 1. The crime rate of foreign-born population is lower than that of the nativeborn (Dr Morris, in his written comments to the Committee added an interesting qualification - crime rate amongst recent immigrants was lower than the “Old Australians” in similar financial and living conditions 2. The arrest rate of immigrant groups varies widely and also differs from arrest rate in their country of origin 3. The crime rate of second generation of migrants is higher than that of their parents’ generation and this rate approximates the crime rates of the native-born population 4. Members of the foreign-born population are victims of crime more often than members of the native-born population, and 5. Some foreign-born groups are involved in organised crime. There theTable entitled:- Table 4.1: Offence and Suspect Rates in Country of Birth and Alleged Offender Rates in Victoria by Country of Birth - per 100 000 Population TOTAL CRIME I will not post the Table because it scrambles, but the author after some qualifying comments about statistics from foreign countries says: Arrest Statistics of Victoria - Alleged Offenders Suspect/arrest rates in Victoria reveal some interesting differences. Of the 26 countries listed, offenders born in nine of these countries had an arrest rate higher than the total arrest rate and the arrest rate of the Australians born in Victoria. Arrest rates of those born in Romania, Former Yugoslavia, Soviet Republic, Lebanon, Turkey, and Fiji are high, indeed these arrest rates were higher than rates in their countries of birth; it is highly likely that suspect rates of those born in Vietnam and Cambodia falls in this category. Arrest rate of those born in New Zealand was higher than that of Australian-born but lower than that in New Zealand. Also Victorian arrest rates of those born in Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States were lower than arrest rates in those countries. At this stage these data are illustrative only. In a few years time if the data reveal certain patterns and trends it will be necessary to investigate these differences in detail. The issues that need to be investigated are whether migrants from certain countries display a higher proclivity to crime while in Australia than those from other countries. This remains a difficult task. Crime statistics, currently available, show only whether members of some migrant groups have higher arrest rate than others; they do not reveal whether they commit crime at a higher rate than others. However, if members of some migrant groups continue to display a consistently high arrest rate over several years, this fact must be examined carefully. Statistics on offenders processed, available since 1993-94 from Victoria, clearly show that persons born in Romania, Former Yugoslavia, the Russian Federation, Lebanon, Turkey, Vietnam, and New Zealand were arrested at a higher rate than other migrant groups and the Australian-born during the five year period.
Further on he says" A general pattern that emerges is that immigrant groups with low levels of or no qualification, poor English proficiency, and relatively high level of unemployment also have higher arrest rate than the rest. This is particularly relevant for recent migrant groups. Thus, among the foreign-born, those-born in Cambodia, Lebanon, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey, and Vietnam have a high unemployment rate (very high unemployment rate among those with poor English proficiency), have low English proficiency, and relatively low qualifications. There are exceptions, for example a group may display two of the three deficiencies and not have high arrest rate. Examples in this category are migrants from Greece and Italy. More than three quarters of migrants from Greece and Italy have no formal qualification, and more than a quarter of the population has poor English proficiency but their unemployment rate is very low; their arrest rate is also very low. These two migrant groups came to Australia in large numbers in the 1950s and the data probably reflect well- established community and the resultant age structure. This type of analysis could be effectively carried out when data are available for the past several years.
Then for drug offences he says: For drug offences suspects born in eight countries (Romania, Former Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Lebanon, Turkey, Fiji, New Zealand and Cambodia) had higher arrest rate than those born in Australia (see Table 4.3). Migrants from these eight countries also had higher alleged offender rates for total crime (see Table 4.1). Another interesting observation is that with very few exceptions, drugs arrest rates of those born overseas and live in Victoria are higher than those in their country of origin, in some cases the rates were several times higher. Suspects born in the same nine countries show higher arrest rates for the offence of major assault than those born in Australia. Together, arrests for drug offences and major assaults account for about 15 per cent of all arrests. For the remaining three serious violent offences of robbery, rape, homicide the arrest pattern by country of birth was not so clear (see Tables 4.4 to 4.7). The number of arrests for these specific offences for most migrant groups is very small and caution must be taken to interpret the data.
Based on the figures it seems the viets are a major problem, but the lebs and turks are way up there, amongst others.
Regards
Desmond
ps do not forget there are muslims in Yugoslavia, but few if any in Romania.
