Queensland Crime Harm Index Project: Community Survey Methodology and Findings Report
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Williamson, Harley
Ransley, Janet
Karstedt, Susanne
Bartlett, David
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Abstract
In April 2017, 2000 Queensland residents were randomly selected to partake in a survey about crime harms. Of these participants, 200 were randomly selected from rural areas of Queensland. Participants were asked to rank a series of crime based on how harmful they thought they were to individual victims, their families, and the wider community who may be indirectly affected by such crimes. The survey also asked questions about participants’ perceptions towards safety and security within their neighbourhood, gauged attitudes regardin where police resources should be allocated, and ascertained whether participants had been previously victimised. Finally, a range of questions relating to demographic information about each participant were asked. The following report provides an analysis of how participants ranked crime harms in Queensland, and where participants felt police resources should be directed. Analyses highlight the breakdown of attitudes towards crime harms and police priorities based on a range of demographic factors. These analyses report differences by gender; age group; whether the participant is from an urban or rural area; and whether the participant reported they had been previously victimised. This report presents data from the highest reported crime harms and the lowest reported crime harms, and the top three and bottom three reported police priorities. The highest reported crime harms were selected if the mean reported harm score was equal to or greater than 90%. The lowest reported crime harms were selected if the mean reported harm score was equal to or less than 60%. Data was analysed by comparing the means of crime harm variables and police priority variable with a range of demographic items in the SPSS statistical software program. Once comparing the means, other tests were run to assess a statistically significant difference between each independent variable (i.e., gender, age group, reported previous victimisation, and rural/urban status) and the two dependent variables (i.e., perceived crime harms and attitudes towards police priorities). For dichotomous items, independent samples t-tests were run to determine whether there was a significant difference between the groups (e.g., between males and females). For the analyses that disaggregated by age group, oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were conducted to ascertain the difference in perceptions of crime harms when participants were disaggregated by age group. A one-way ANOVA was used to compare differences in perceptions of crime harms across the four age groups. Post-hoc Bonferroni tests were then conducted to determine which age groups these differences could be attributable to. Where test assumptions were violated, post-hoc Games-Howell tests were conducted to determine significant differences between age groups.
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Criminology
Sociology
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Murphy, K; Williamson, H; Ransley, J; Karstedt, S; Bartlett, D, Queensland Crime Harm Index Project: Community Survey Methodology and Findings Report, 2017