Events in New South Wales in 1998, including the death of off-duty police
officer Peter Forsyth in February, the murder of 14 year old schoolboy, Edward
Lee in Punchbowl in October and the drive-by shooting of Lakemba police station
in November have once again caused the law and order debate to intensify.
People are becoming more fearful of crime, and assertions that the incidence of
crime has risen , along with concerns about the corresponding cost to the
community, have combined to make crime prevention and “law and
order” a priority for all governments. The phenomenon of crime in
Australia is discussed in Part 2.0 below. Crime prevention has also become a
priority for the Police Service and concerned community groups, all of whom
have their own theories on how best to combat and prevent crime.1
The object of this Paper is to survey the States and Territories to evaluate
the legislative response of State and Territory Governments across Australia to
this problem of crime prevention and the law and order question generally. The
paper does not attempt to evaluate the success of various measures, simply to
highlight the steps taken. The survey covers the period 1995 to the end of
1998. It does not take note of every minor amendment in the field of criminal
legislation, but it does seek to offer a reasonably comprehensive coverage of
the major legislative initiatives, taking account of the main features of the
relevant reforms.
For an act to be considered a crime, it must be prohibited and punishable by
the state. The scope of what can be a ‘crime’ is, therefore, very
wide. For the purposes of this paper, the source of what is
‘criminal’ is not restricted to the various state crimes
legislation. Similarly, ‘law and order’ is a difficult term to
define. For the purposes of this paper, it has been taken to mainly include the
following broad areas: street crime and maintenance of public order; crimes
against the person; property offences; drug crime; juvenile crime; firearms and
other dangerous weapons; sentencing; victims of crime, and bail, probation and
parole.3
It is accepted that legislation is only part of any response to law and order
issues. The police service, through its policies for example, and welfare and
other social groups also play an important role in crime prevention and the
efficiency of the legal justice system.4 Such matters are, however, beyond the
scope of this paper, which concentrates on the legislative response of
Australian State and Territory governments to the law and order debate. Nor
does this Paper deal in any detail with developments towards a model criminal
code in Australia, or with certain areas in which national uniform schemes have
been introduced, as in relation to witness protection, international transfer
of prisoners and the classification of publications, films and computer games.