By Bing Han and Mark Button

Fraud against individuals has become one of the most common crimes in many countries throughout the world. China, like many other nations, has experienced significant increases in the volume of fraud. One type of scam that has become prevalent there is the “pig butchering scam” which is a form of hybrid romance-investment fraud, where the scammers establish relationships, build trust and gradually escalate to a significant fraud. This scam also differs from other romance frauds with the involvement of organized crime groups on a significant scale, often utilizing forced and trafficked labor. This paper offers insights from Chinese victims and police officers of the characteristics and anatomy of this scam.

Deviant Behavior, January 2025

By Hany Farid 

The ability to distort the visual record is not new. Airbrushed images attempted to alter the historical archives in the early 1900s. Today, digitally manipulated cheapfakes and deepfakes supercharge the spread of lies and conspiracies. While not fundamentally new, today's enhanced ability to easily create, distribute, and amplify manipulated media has heightened the risks. Reasonable and proportional interventions can and should be adopted that would allow for the creative uses of these powerful new technologies while mitigating the risk they pose to individuals, societies, and democracies.

PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2025, pgaf194,

By Jason Eligh

The countries of Eastern and Southern Africa have a long history of illicit drug cultivation, production, consumption and trade. Khat, a crop that is indigenous to the Horn and coastal East Africa, has been used as a stimulant since the 12th century. Cannabis, originally imported from Asia, has a history of several hundred years of production and use in the region.

Initially, the informal policies surrounding the control of these drugs had been driven by traditional social networks, and cultural beliefs and practices. Today, however, it is the more recent large-scale trade in and widespread use of opiates, stimulants and other synthetic substances that has become recognized as a harmful phenomenon and risk to the region. As container and intermodal shipping grew rapidly through the 1970s, along with new long-haul mass transport and passenger aircraft, the global economic landscape in general, and illicit drug marketplaces in particular, were reshaped. The development of the region’s air and seaports, and their integration into global transport and communication networks, saw the emergence of new entrepôt trade, and hubs of commerce became networked across the continent. Meanwhile, technological innovations designed to increase the volume of drug commodity movement and decrease the risk of seizure began to emerge. With these developments, many nascent networks of African drug traders began to consolidate their positions in the drug economies of Eastern and Southern Africa.

As international drug control measures began to restrict supply chains from South Asian and Latin American source points, new trafficking routes evolved in Eastern and Southern African states to circumvent these measures, thus opening new supply channels and, consequently, new markets. From the 1980s, the continental consumption, production and distribution of substances such as heroin, cocaine, cannabis and synthetic drugs grew notably, and the impact of this expanding illicit market on development was significant, and paradoxically symbiotic. The emerging illicit drug markets were both a threat to development and security in the region and at the same time a new source of economic livelihood for populations of poor and vulnerable communities.

The 1990s saw significant, rapid drug trade expansion across the continent as Afghan heroin began to emerge in volume in East Africa. Shipped by dhow to Kenyan and Tanzanian ports from Pakistan and Iranian departure points, initially to be repackaged and trans-shipped to European and US markets, local heroin use began to grow. Heroin use spread along the eastern coast and to South Africa, as well as to some island states, such as Mauritius and the Seychelles. Across the region these heroin users tended to be among the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. Injection drug use soon emerged in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eSwatini, Namibia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Cocaine, methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs soon followed.

Today, Eastern and Southern African countries have become significant illicit drug transit hubs and destination markets for a diversity of illicit drugs. Growing consumer demand and improved infrastructure have shaped and facilitated the availability and accessibility of illicit drugs across the region. As a consequence, domestic and regional drug trade flows and user markets have become embedded features of the region’s domestic illicit economies.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime 2021. 28p.

By Federico Bertola

Drug trafficking on darknet based marketplaces has become a highly concerning topic in law enforcement activities, recently. Even though Dark Markets represent only a tiny fraction of the global drug trade, they are changing the drug markets' social networks, introducing a new paradigm of the link between vendors and buyers of drugs. The aim of this study is to critically review the dark markets' ecosystem and the previous literature regarding these new marketplaces, trying to investigate how the drug trade is changing with these new technologies, and the role of organised crime (OC) in these new illegal markets. And trying to understand how and whether it involved OC on these cyber drug markets and the chain behind them. Despite opinions of part of the academy, the results show that there are no empirical evidences of direct involvement of OC as vendors in dark markets. However, there is evidence of an indirect role of OC in darknet drug trafficking, as supplier of illegal drugs to the online-vendors. 

AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 4, Issue 2 (Special Issue), pp. 27-34

By Jakob Demant, Kristoffer Magnus Bjerre Aagesen

This study investigated the current state of social media drug dealing. The main objective was to understand how contemporary hybrid digital social media markets have evolved since previous research was undertaken in 2017-18. This was achieved by conducting netnography in online spaces, with a particular focus on Danish sites. The netnography data collection in Denmark has since been rolled out in Norway, Sweden and Germany. The most significant findings are as follows.

• Our netnography found no access to drug dealing in Danish spaces through searching on the Meta platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Although there may be some limited groups on Facebook, the findings suggest that there has been a successful implementation of increased moderation protocols on both Instagram and Facebook.

• On Snapchat, we identified easy and quick access to many active drug dealers in all major Danish cities. These dealers were identified by searching for common Danish drug slang in the search field and through suggestions from the app’s network-expanding features. We found similar ready access to drug dealers in Norway and Sweden. However, we did not identify drug dealer activity on the German Snapchat.

• We also found a vast amount of Danish and Swedish drug dealing on forums in the social networking site Reddit. Here, dealers created and moderated forums dedicated to selling drugs. The forums functioned as open markets with high levels of competition and a degree of specialisation in offering all types of drugs. No Norwegian and German dealers was found on these sites.

In summary, we identified easily accessible drug dealing on surface-level social media amounting to a large potential drift among social media users. Snapchat and Reddit each host active digital drug markets well suited to taking advantage of the platforms’ features while avoiding effective moderation. It was not possible to reach either platform to inform them

Lisbon:  European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) , 2022. 29p.

By Nacer Lalam

Money laundering is practised exclusively by criminal organisations that have attained a proven level of professionalism. It occurs at a certain point in the criminal cycle because it enables an illicit enterprise to legitimise the origin of their funds and benefit from their gains while remaining unpunished. Nonetheless, most professional traffickers think in a sequential manner, that is, first they are interested in how to set up their activity (purchase, logistics, distribution) and only much later in how they are going to hide the origin of the profits they make.

However, the money-laundering phase is crucial for those involved in the criminal world. Moreover, public authorities have been working to combat money laundering for more than thirty years, with, of course, varying degrees of success, depending on the relevant legal provisions, their application and preventive effects.

In the context of the European drug market, this paper provides an exploratory analysis of a method of laundering drug money that law enforcement agencies (LEAs) identify through the use of ‘cash collectors’. We first highlight the main actors of cash collecting linked to drug trafficking, then we discuss its organisation, especially the interpenetration of networks, and, finally, we highlight some salient elements of public responses to the problem in a number of European countries.

Lisbon:  European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) , 2022. 25p.

By Antonio L. Mazzitelli

The 10th Parallel marine and aerial routes linking South America and West Africa harbor a long history of trade between the two continents. More recently, these routes have become one of the preferred routes used by Latin American traffickers for shipping multi-tons of cocaine destined for the growing European market. The Parallel’s growing importance in cocaine trafficking has made it known as cocaine “Highway 10” among law enforcement.

Latin American cocaine trafficking organizations, particularly the Colombian ones, have established stable bases in West Africa, controlling and developing the route. West African facilitators, Nigerians as well as an increasing number of nationals from all countries where shipments are stocked, have developed a stronger capacity for taking over more ambitious and lucrative role in the business as transporters, partners, and final buyers. In one case (Guinea), the West African partner had already started developing his own trafficking and manufacturing capacity, reproducing the patterns that made Colombia the business model of the drug industry. In this reshaped context, of particular concern is the role played by the Colombian FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) as provider of cocaine shipments to West African cocaine entrepreneurs, as well as the impact of drug trafficking money on the financing of terrorist and rebel groups operating in the Sahel-Saharan belt.

Miami: Florida International University Western Hemisphere Security Analysis Center. 2011.  57p.

By Astrid De Schutter and Nils Duquet 

Firearms trafficking in the European Union (EU) is driven by criminal demand and is a key enabler for other criminal activities such as drug trafficking . Criminals seek to acquire firearms for instrumental purposes, namely to facilitate their criminal activities, where they use guns to threaten, intimidate or assault others (criminals or non-criminals) , but they can also be acquired for the reputation afforded through the possession of – especially certain types of – firearms . Previous studies have shown that handguns are the type of firearm most commonly possessed by criminals in Europe as they are lightweight, easy to conceal and generally reliable. While automatic rifles can also be very effective for intimidation and assault purposes, their possession by criminals is less common . Criminal demand for firearms comes from various types of criminals ranging from international drug traffickers, armed robbers, youth gangs involved in street drug dealing, human traffickers, loan sharks, professional assassins and so on. Yet not all criminals have equal access to firearms. Given that legal access to firearms is almost impossible for criminals in Europe, they acquire them through other means. These firearms can, for example, be stolen from legal gun owners or state stockpiles, bought from a local criminal arms dealer or trafficked internationally. Interviews with experts, as well as previous studies, suggest also that the criminal demand for firearms is increasing in various EU Member States. Due to the traditionally closed character of illicit gun markets in Europe, firearms are often only accessible to criminals when they have the necessary criminal connections. Younger and less experienced criminals tend to experience more difficulties in their attempts to acquire firearms. In the past decade, however, law enforcement agencies from various European countries have noted an increased availability of firearms for criminals in their country. Previous studies have linked this to various trafficking methods, including the continuous supply of conflict legacy weapons from the Western Balkans, the increased trafficking in easy-to-reactivate firearms and in easy-to-convert blank-firing weapons and Flobert-calibre firearms. The possibilities generated by the internet have further eroded the closed character of illicit gun markets in Europe. The increased availability of firearms is believed to have ‘facilitated the gradual trickling-down of the possession and use of firearms to lower segments of the criminal hierarchy in several EU Member States, especially in western Europe’. In 2021 Europol noted that the use of violence in serious and organised crime seemed to be increasing in the EU, both in frequency and severity, augmented by the frequent use of firearms and explosives. A 2021 comparative study on gun violence in Europe, coordinated by the Flemish Peace Institute, concluded that firearms trafficking in Europe is not only driven by criminal demand, but is also strongly connected to criminal gun violence. The observed increased availability of various types of firearms to criminals has led to an escalation of criminal gun violence in several European countries and sometimes also to arms races among criminals. The study also concluded that shootings in the criminal underworld in Europe are mainly connected to the drugs trade and enabled by firearms trafficking. A 2018 EMCDDA study on drug-related homicide concluded that this type of homicide is more likely to involve the use of firearms than other means of violence. Findings from project TARGET state that young men (under the age of 35) are the main victims and perpetrators of lethal gun violence. This is also the case for non-lethal gun violence, but there is a more even age distribution in this category.  In 2019 the EMCDDA and Europol noted that the criminal use of firearms, including automatic weapons, by organised crime groups involved in European drug markets appeared to be increasing. According to Europol, the use of violence related to the trade in drugs – cocaine and cannabis in particular – has escalated in recent years, and the availability of firearms and explosives is a key enabler for this violence. A previous study concluded that more research is needed to uncover the dynamics between drug markets in Europe and gun violence: ‘While there is clearly a link between the illegal drug trade and firearm violence, this connection and its enabling elements are an important avenue for further research’ (18). Counteracting drug-related gun violence requires a good intelligence picture of its scope, characteristics and dynamics. The objective of this report is to analyse the nexus between gun violence and the illegal drug market in Europe. To reach this objective, this paper addresses the following research questions: 1. What is the nexus between firearms trafficking and drug trafficking in the European Union? 2. What are the scope and characteristics of drug-related firearms violence in the European Union? 3. How does this violence impact society?    

Lisbon: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) 2023. 57p.

By EUDA and the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office Western Europe (RILO-WE) of the World Customs Organization (WCO)

This report was prepared jointly by the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) and the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office Western Europe (RILO-WE) of the World Customs Organization (WCO), in order to support the European Ports Alliance Public Private Partnership (European Ports Alliance). To this end it provides an overview of seizures of drugs in or destined for EU seaports in the period from January 2019 to June 2024. As the report notes, there are significant gaps in the available data, which is a major barrier to developing a better understanding of the current situation and trends. As a result, the report’s findings need to be interpreted with a degree of caution. • Based on data provided by WCO RILO-WE, a total of 1 826 tonnes of drugs were seized at or in transit to EU seaports in the period between January 2019 and June 2024, out of which more than 1 244 tonnes were seized at EU ports (about 68 %). The data available indicates that the majority of the total quantity was seized from container ships (at least 1 507 tonnes, 82.6 % of the total). However, this is likely to be a significant underestimate of all drugs seized in or destined for EU ports during this period, due to the absence of data and gaps in reporting from several EU Member States. • Eighteen EU countries reported to the WCO on seizures carried out at a total of 96 EU ports (of which 40 are in Spain). However, the data submitted by these countries is not comprehensive, as some countries only reported a limited number of cases. For example, two key Member States only reported two cases each to the WCO during the five-and-a-half-year period in question, while the actual number of seizures in these countries during this time was much higher. • Among the 33 seaports that belong to the European Ports Alliance, nine appear not to report drug seizures to the WCO. The analysis also indicates that some seaports that are currently not members of the European Ports Alliance are significant targets for maritime drug trafficking. • Seventeen EU ports seized over 10 tonnes of drugs in this period, with Antwerp (BE) seizing the largest quantity (483 tonnes). • Cocaine appears to be the drug trafficked in the largest quantity to EU ports, with about 1 487 tonnes seized, representing 81.7 % of the total quantity of drugs in the dataset. Cannabis resin appears to be the second most trafficked drug, with about 260 tonnes seized, or 14.2 % of the total. For some drug types, only small numbers of seizures were reported (e.g. only 35 seizures of herbal cannabis were recorded). • The ports of Antwerp (BE) and Rotterdam (NL) seized the largest quantities of cocaine (about 443 tonnes and 181 tonnes respectively) and heroin (8.1 tonnes and 5 tonnes respectively). • The ports of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ES) and Huelva (ES) seized the largest quantities of cannabis resin (42 tonnes and 30 tonnes respectively). • The available data indicate that at least 21.7 tonnes of captagon were seized at EU seaports during this period. The majority came from one seizure in Salerno (IT) in 2020 (14.2 tonnes). It is noteworthy that no captagon seizures were reported to the WCO in EU ports after 2020. • The large quantities of drugs seized on average per shipment — more than 500 kilograms of cocaine and more than 1.3 tonnes of cannabis resin — and in total during the period, confirm that criminal networks are still able to use EU ports to smuggle wholesale amounts of various drugs, especially cocaine. This in turn indicates that EU ports are infiltrated by organised criminal networks to a significant degree, implying the likely corruption among port staff including port workers and law enforcement officials. In addition, violence has been observed in connection with drug smuggling in many EU ports. 

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2025 2025. 32p

By Zabjek, Alexandra

In Canada, a woman is killed by her intimate partner every six days. Alberta has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the country. Starting in the 1970s, Alberta women’s shelters have assisted women in crisis. Much more than a safe place to sleep, shelters work to prevent violence through education and training, connect people and communities, and support the complex needs of survivors through a multitude of services. We Need to Do This is the story of Alberta women's shelters. Based on dozens of in-depth interviews, it traces the evolution of a progressive social movement in a traditionally conservative province. These are the stories of women whose voices may otherwise never have been heard: entry-level workers at fledgling shelters battling the assumption that their facilities would create crime, small-town shelter directors forced to self-censor or lose communityand financialsupport, Indigenous women fighting to serve their sisters in Indigenous spaces. Beginning with the women who founded the first shelters, and continuing through the establishment of the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters to the present day, We Need to Do This is a story of hope and survival for the women’s shelter movement and for the mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, and daughters it continues to serve.

Calgary, ONT: University of Calgary Press, 2023. 136p.

By Emmanuel Rowlands

Male Powerlessness investigates black African men’s lived encounters with intimate partner violence (IPV) and the ways in which these men make sense of, and struggle to overcome, their unprecedented experiences of abuse at a time when research on women’s experiences of gender-based violence is expanding. In the transnational and dynamic gender environment of the City of Johannesburg, men (local and immigrant) engage in short- and long-term relationships that are typically marked by contestation and conflict. This book examines how men may become abused in heterosexual relationships, a topic that has received little attention in South African literature. The book examines the impact of IPV on black African men’s masculine identities and helps us understand the many masculine constructs that abused men may articulate. The book explores male powerlessness and its implications for men’s experiences of IPV and masculine well-being. The book makes an invaluable contribution from an empirical, methodological, and theoretical viewpoint to the corpus of gender-based violence literature that will interest students of sociology, criminology, social work, sexual politics, feminism, and critical men’s studies, among others. Emmanuel Rowlands is a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology at the University of Johannesburg and the author of “She is trying to control me”: African Men’s Lived Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in Johannesburg (2021), and Hegemonic Masculinity and Male Powerlessness: A Reflection on African Men’s Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence (2021), and Autoethnography, Reflexivity, and Insider Researcher Dynamics: Reflections on Investigating Violence against Men in Intimate Relationships 2022), and Constructing Victimisation as Masculine Honour: Men and Intimate Partner Violence in Johannesburg (2022).

Johannesburg, UJ Press, 2023. 288p.

Edited by Johanna Stiebert

This book draws attention to the texts, mechanisms, strategies, and initiatives that address and combat sexual(ised) spiritual abuse in five world religions. It goes beyond identifying, describing or characterising spiritual abuse in multiple religious traditions and rape culture settings, instead describing what is being done in diverse religious communities and settings to confront, address, resist, and heal from spiritual abuse. Just as none of the world religions are free from spiritual abuse, all have developed ways to detoxify, prevent, eliminate, and bring healing and justice in the face of its existence. Solution-focused activities range from analysis of sacred texts, to discussion forums, creation of self-representational visual and creative expressions, digital and other forms of activism and protest, specialist training courses, support groups, and survivor-led initiatives. The book will appeal to academics of religious studies with interest in rape culture and spiritual abuse, as well as upper-level undergraduates and postgraduates, and also religious leaders, or leaders of faith-based organisations, seeking to understand and to confront spiritual abuse and rape culture in their own communities. 

Oxford; New York: Routledge, 2025. 98p.

By Ruth Beecher

This open access book is an innovative history of community health practitioners’ responses to the seemingly intractable problem of men (and on rare occasions, women) sexually abusing children within the private family home. It is situated within a social history of the development of British community-based health professions in the last decades of the twentieth century. Drawing on archival research and newly gathered in-depth oral history interviews, the monograph argues that expectations placed upon community-based doctors, nurses and mental health staff since the 1980s in relation to predicting and preventing the sexual abuse of children by men they know are incongruous. Beneath a surface acquiescence to the need to protect children from such abuse or to intervene early lie cultural, social and structural barriers that prevent its fulfilment. The book is a first in specifically interrogating the recent history of the role of community health practitioners within the modern 'child protection workforce', and contributes to growing scholarship on the history of emotions in the medical professions.

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025. 294p.

By  Mary Bylera , Tara L Mitchellb , Rhoda Witmerc , and Jasper Hoffmand

Background: Anabaptists are often stereotyped as quaint, conscientious objectors, peaceful, and gentle and are upheld as models for forgiveness, yet little is known about potential violence and abuse within their communities. Investigative reports, such as Espenshade and Alexander (2004) and Price (1992), though, suggest that sexual and physical violence may be common.

Objective: We sought participants for a study on their experiences of child sexual abuse (CSA). Because existing research on CSA has largely excluded Anabaptists or promoted the voices of their powerful over the marginalized voices of survivors, we intentionally sought current and non-practicing Anabaptist participants.

Methods: Participants (N = 384) responded to an online survey. Survey questions addressed participant demographics, religious affiliations, CSA experiences, and childhood teachings about CSA, as well as how CSA affected them.

Results: Of the 384 participants, 310 were born or joined in Anabaptist. Chi-square analyses showed that approximately half of participants experienced CSA, almost all participants were impacted by CSA, and CSA was related to changes in religious affiliation. Importantly, though, qualitative analysis revealed Anabaptist-background participants described CSA in ways that differed notably from participants not raised Anabaptist.

Conclusion: CSA occurs within conservative religious groups, including Anabaptist churches. Accurate information and language regarding bodies, abuse, consent, and resources could help conservative Anabaptist communities prevent CSA and provide culturally competent care for CSA survivors.

2024. 34p. 

By Jerski Jarzen Duria

This study explores the gendered dynamics of poverty porn vlogging in the Philippines, focusing on how male and female vloggers portray poverty and interact with impoverished subjects. "Poverty porn" refers to content that exploits the suffering of impoverished individuals for emotional or financial gain, often by framing the content creators as charitable figures. The research examines six vloggers-ForeignGerms, Raffy Tulfo, King Lucks, Ivana Alawi, Rosemarie Tan Pamulaklakin, and Alex Gonzaga-whose content frequently centers around poverty in the Philippines. Through a qualitative content analysis approach, this study identifies recurring patterns, themes, and narrative structures within their vlogs. Drawing on Gender Role Theory, the research explores how societal expectations shape the behavior of male and female vloggers. Power and Exploitation Theory further explains the power dynamics between vloggers and their vulnerable subjects. Key themes include the emotional exploitation and the commodification of gendered vulnerability, reinforcement of gendered power dynamics and the savior complex, the gendered gaze and performative charity. Male vloggers tend to adopt dominant roles, positioning themselves as rescuers, while female vloggers often emphasize emotional labor and caregiving. This gendered framing perpetuates stereotypes of men as saviors and women as dependent and vulnerable. This study highlights the ethical concerns of such content, where vloggers profit from the suffering of impoverished individuals, particularly women and children. By analyzing these gendered portrayals, the research contributes to the discourse on the ethics of poverty porn in the digital age, shedding light on how social media creators exploit poverty for profit.

Unpublished paper, 2024.

By Luis E C Rocha1  · Petter Holme  · Claudio D G Linhares  

Differences in the social and economic environment across countries encourage humans to migrate in search of better living conditions, including job opportunities, higher salaries, security and welfare. Quantifying global migration is, however, challenging because of poor recording, privacy issues and residence status. This is particularly critical for some classes of migrants involved in stigmatised, unregulated or illegal activities. Escorting services or high-end prostitution are well-paid activities that attract workers all around the world. In this paper, we study international migration patterns of sex-workers by using network methods. Using an extensive international online advertisement directory of escorting services and information about individual escorts, we reconstruct a migrant fow network where nodes represent either origin or destination countries. The links represent the direct routes between two countries. The migration network of sex-workers shows diferent structural patterns than the migration of the general population. The network contains a strong core where mutual migration is often observed between a group of high-income European countries, yet Europe is split into diferent network communities with specifc ties to non-European countries. We find non-reciprocal relations between countries, with some of them mostly ofering while others attract workers. The Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPc) is a good indicator of country attractiveness for incoming workers and service rates but is unrelated to the probability of emigration. The median fnancial gain of migrating, in comparison to working at the home country, is 15.9%. Only sex-workers coming from 77% of the countries have financial gains with migration and average gains decrease with the GDPc of the country of origin. Our results suggest that high-end sex-worker migration is regulated by economic, geographic and cultural aspects. 

 Journal of Computational Social Science (2022) 5:969–985

By Ben Mathews, Kelsey L Hegarty, Harriet L MacMillan, Monica Madzoska, Holly E Erskine, Rosana Pacella, James G Scott, Hannah Thomas, Franziska Meinck, Daryl Higginss

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence in Australia of intimate partner violence, each intimate partner violence type, and multitype intimate partner violence, overall and by gender, age group, and sexual orientation.

Study design: National survey; Composite Abuse Scale (Revised)—Short Form administered in mobile telephone interviews, as a component of the Australian Child Maltreatment Study.

Setting: Australia, 9 April – 11 October 2021. Participants 8503 people aged 16 years or older: 3500 aged 16–24 years and about 1000 each aged 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, or 65 years or older.

Main outcome measures: Proportions of participants who had ever been in an intimate partner relationship since the age of 16 years (overall, and by gender, age group, and sexual orientation) who reported ever experiencing intimate partner physical, sexual, or psychological violence.

Results: Survey data were available for 8503 eligible participants (14% of eligible persons contacted), of whom 7022 had been in intimate relationships. The prevalence of experiencing any intimate partner violence was 44.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 43.3–46.2%); physical violence was reported by 29.1% (95% CI, 27.7–30.4%) of participants, sexual violence by 11.7% (95% CI, 10.8–12.7%), and psychological violence by 41.2% (95% CI, 39.8–42.6%). The prevalence of experiencing intimate partner violence was significantly higher among women (48.4%; 95% CI, 46.3–50.4%) than men (40.4%; 95% CI, 38.3–42.5%); the prevalence of physical, sexual, and psychological violence were also higher for women. The proportion of participants of diverse genders who reported experiencing intimate partner violence was high (62 of 88 participants; 69%; 95% CI, 55–83%). The proportion of non-heterosexual participants who reported experiencing intimate partner violence (70.2%; 95% CI, 65.7–74.7%) was larger than for those of heterosexual orientation (43.1%; 95% CI, 41.6–44.6%). More women (33.7%; 95% CI, 31.7–35.6%) than men (22.7%; 95% CI, 20.9–24.5%) reported multitype intimate partner violence. Larger proportions of participants aged 25–44 years (51.4%; 95% CI, 48.9–53.9%) or 16–24 years (48.4%, 95% CI, 46.1–50.6%) reported experiencing intimate partner violence than of participants aged 45 years or older (39.9%; 95% CI, 37.9–41.9%).

Conclusions: Intimate partner violence is widespread in Australia. Women are significantly more likely than men to experience any intimate partner violence, each type of violence, and multitype intimate partner violence. A comprehensive national prevention policy is needed, and clinicians should be helped with recognising and responding to intimate partner violence.

Medical Journal of AustraliaVolume 222, Issue 9, May 2025, Pages, 423-480

By Catriona Stevens, Loretta Baldassar, Eileen O’Brian, and Everyone's Business: Research into responses to the abuse of older people (elder abuse) in Western Australia" is a study that examines how different sectors in Western Australia respond to elder abuse. The research, conducted between 2020-2022, is a key component of the WA Strategy to Respond to the Abuse of Older People (2019-2029). It involved over 750 participants from various sectors, making it the largest study of its kind in Western Australia. 

The study aimed to: 

• Understand the types of abuse experienced by older people in Western Australia .

• Map agency and service provider responses and referral pathways: to understand the support journey for older people experiencing or at risk of abuse.

• Explore best practice recommendations: tailored to the Western Australian context, considering available resources and the specific needs of diverse populations.

The research highlights that elder abuse is a significant issue in Western Australia, with one in six older people experiencing some form of abuse. The study also reveals that many older people experiencing abuse don't seek help due to various reasons, such as shame, fear, or lack of awareness about available services. 

The research findings inform the WA Strategy to Respond to the Abuse of Older People, which has four key priority areas: raising awareness and early identification; prevention and early intervention; integrated and coordinated response; and data and evidence. The strategy emphasizes that addressing elder abuse is everyone's responsibility and requires a whole-of-community approach. 

Perth: Social Ageing (SAGE) Futures Lab.2023. 409p.

This Statistical Bulletin presents the results from the 2023–24 Fraud Against the Commonwealth census. A similar number of internal fraud investigations were finalised compared with the previous financial year. Fewer external fraud investigations were finalised. Automatic processes were the primary method of detecting internal and external fraud allegations in 2023–24. Program information and program payments were the principal targets of substantiated internal and external fraud allegations respectively. Internal and external fraud losses were lower than the losses reported in 2022–23. Australian Government entities reported greater internal fraud and lower external fraud recoveries in 2023–24 than in the previous financial year

Statistical Bulletin 47

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2025. 16p.

Introduction

Australian survey and seizure data suggest a growing illicit tobacco market. As an illicit product, accurately tracking trends in illicit tobacco growing, manufacture, and sales is challenging. We examined trends in Australian illicit tobacco-related crimes using a content analysis of news articles.

Aims and Methods

We analyzed Australian news articles identified in the Factiva database and government press releases describing Australian illicit tobacco-related crimes reported between January 2000 and December 2023. Sources were coded for crime type, location, product type, dollar value of seized products, methods of distribution or storage, agencies involved, and other crimes involved.

Results

We identified 447 crimes reported in 389 sources. The number of illicit tobacco-related crimes reported increased between 2000 and 2023. The most common crimes were possession of illicit tobacco (n = 196/43.7%) and smuggling (n = 187/41.8%), and the most common product type was “illicit cigarettes” (n = 197/44.1%). The most common distribution/storage method reported was via residential premises (n = 98/21.9%). One-hundred and twenty incidents involved other crimes such as financial crimes involving money laundering (n = 59/13.2%). Across all included news articles, the quantity of seized products totaled 827 529 307 cigarette sticks, 76 185 cartons, 668 687 packs, 239 hectares (of land growing tobacco plants), and 2 149 000 plants of illicit tobacco between 2000 and 2023. The median value (worth; AUD) of each seizure was $1 500 000 (range $43 to $67 000 000).

Conclusions

Australian media reporting on illicit tobacco-related crimes increased over the past two decades, particularly since 2018. These findings highlight a need for improved border detection measures, investment in enforcement, and other deterrent activities.

Implications

This media analysis complements trends identified in national survey data that indicate a growing illicit tobacco market in Australia since 2013 with a marked increase since 2018. While survey data suggests that the Australian tobacco tax policy, which has included regular large tax increases since 2010, has decreased consumer demand for tobacco overall, it may have also incentivized criminal networks to supply illicit tobacco products due to it being a “low risk” and “high reward” activity. Controlling the Australian illicit tobacco market should be a policy priority.

Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Volume 27, Issue 6, June 2025, Pages 980–987,