A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF QUANTITATIVE CRIMINOLOGY IN AUSTRALASIA - 1981-1995

This paper reviews quantitative criminological research, especially of a sophisticated mathematical nature, published by researchers in Aust ralia and New Zealand since 1981. A statistical analysis of quantitati ve articles published between 1981 and 1995 in the leading academic jo urnal, The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, showed t hat using the five topical categories developed by Farrington (this is sue), there has been little change in the types of research carried ou t, with studies of court processes and correctional issues accounting for two-thirds of papers. The numbers of ''simple'' and ''sophisticate d'' quantitative articles as proportions of the total published also d id not vary over the 15 years. Areas of strength in quantitative resea rch include drugs, alcohol, and crime; indigenous peoples and the crim inal justice system; regulatory law enforcement; the modeling of recid ivism; and sentencing. Most sophisticated quantitative research is car ried out by noncriminologists, and it appears unlikely that the amount of mathematically sophisticated research will increase significantly in the next few years. Experimental studies and longitudinal designs w ill probably slowly grow in popularity, and crime prevention will emer ge as an area of quantitative strength.