CRIME SOARS NATIONWIDE

http://www.ssaa.org.au/ozcrime2.html

HERALD SUN (MELB) IST Edition
Thursday 25 November, 1999 Page 12

Armed robbery across Australia has rocketed by 69 per cent in just
three years as the nation becomes a “desperate and divided society”.

The latest nationwide crime statistics reveal a sense of national
desperation, the Federal Opposition said.

Between 1995 and 1998 assaults increased 27 per cent, robbery jumped
by 57 per cent while imprisonment rates also climbed.

The most commonly mentioned crime in Australia is now assault, with
4.3 per cent of the population being hit, attacked with a weapon or
threatened with violence.

While sexual assault increased only slightly between 1995 and 1998
there are 1.7 sexual assaults each hour in Australia.

The statistics, collected by the Australian Institute of Criminology,
are the most up-to-date picture of Australian crime.

They do not rely on police and court reports but include information
from 42,200 people and about 20,900 households.

Opposition justice spokesman Duncan Kerr said the statistics were a
dangerous sign of a growing economic and social divide.

“The glue that holds Australia together may be starting to dissolve”, he said.

“The robbery rate can be broken down to show that the number of armed
robberies has increased by 69 per cent since 1995, while the number
of unarmed robberies has increased by 33 per cent.”

He said more people were being drawn into the criminal cycle.

“But the only plausible explanation appears to be that there is a
growing anti-social response by people who feel that they have been
left out, left behind and are not part of Australia’s economic
success.”

The murder rate has remained fairly constant with 333 homicides
reported last year.

Institute director Adam Graycar said the report would not necessarily
reflect police statistics.

“It must be noted that crimes recorded by the police do not reflect
the true level of crime in Australia,” he said.

“Crime and safety surveys in Australia and crime victims surveys from
overseas clearly show that only about 40 percent of crimes are
reported to police by victims.:”
============================================================
SCREWY STATS?

The statistics the NRA used in an awareness campaign which caused
such furor in Australia came from Australia in the first place!
Recently there has been a lot of controversy here over the NRA citing
crime stats in Australia as reason for no gun control. One well-known
Australian national news reader (her name withheld) became very
indignant over the issue saying they wondered where in the world the
NRA got their Ozzie statistics. Her comments after this news bite
blatantly inferred the NRA had pulled the stats out of their hip
pocket to further their agenda. The egg was on _her_ face. The stats
came right from one of Melbourne, Victoria’s own newspapers, The
Herald Sun!

I searched the Net and found the Herald Sun article. Stan wrote this
intellectually-challenged woman (She’s made terrible faux pas on TV
before like asking a rabbi how he was going to spend Christmas.)
showing where the stats came from. Needless to say, we received NO
response from Channel 9.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Australia likes to think removal of guns has brought down crime. This
has not been the case.

The thing that the OZ government is conveniently not considering is
that you can wind up just as dead via a knife or some other means.
Removing guns was not the solution. It takes an entire reconditioning
of people globally to value human life. As a substitute, many
criminals are using “tainted” needles as their choice of weapon, or
knives. If criminals aren’t using guns, they’ll use whatever is handy
to accomplish their goal. Removing guns was an act of total stupidity
on the part of the Australian government, nothing more.

Excerpted from page 10 of the April 29, 1999 edition of the Herald
Sun. It states:

“Needle Threats Soar By 1000%”

“Syringe attacks are soaring in Victoria, with more than one a day
now being reported to police.

“Needle-point robberies and assaults in the first six months of this
financial year (July 1 – December 31) easily outstripped the total
for 1997-98, according to police figures obtained by the Herald Sun.”

Crimes involving knives are also on the rise. Excerpted from Friday
March 12th’s article in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“Knives on Increase as Murderers’ Choice”

“The Federal Government will crack down on the availability of
illegal knives after figures released yesterday showed they were the
most common weapon used in homicides.

“The Australian Institute of Criminology said 36 per cent of all
murders in 1997-98 involved knives or other sharp objects, up from
32.5 per cent in 1994-95.

“Homicides with other weapons, such as firearms and blunt
instruments, _had been_ falling along with the overall murder rate.