Non-Violent Crime

Abstract

In a large Australian study, most international students (84 per cent) indicated unreservedly that they felt safe (Marginson et al., 2010). A small number indicated that they had been subject to forms of hate crime including verbal abuse or had heard about thefts and assaults, but felt safe nonetheless. The 200 interviews forming the database for the Australian study were conducted before the highly publicised street attacks against Indian students in the western suburbs of Melbourne. Despite these high-profile Melbourne attacks, international students in the Australian city of Sydney more frequently reported feeling unsafe. While the violent Melbourne attacks were seen as putting the issue of international student safety on the policy agendas of organisations and government, non-violent crime is more prevalent. Much verbal abuse was associated with drunken perpetrators, which frequently occurred on public transport. Most students chose to ignore offensive remarks and some Muslim women indicated that they were less victimised when not wearing their headscarves. There were many reports of theft of laptops and mobile phones. All of these offences tended to occur off campus.

We did find, in a particular area that happened to also coincide with a lot of international students being there, that they were being targeted disproportionately to everyone else.

(P55 University Chief of Public Safety, US)