Australian Evidence
• Arrest/offenders processed statistics from Victoria for the five year period
1993-94 to 1997-98 display the following patterns:
The overall arrest rate of alleged offenders from no migrant group display a
consistently rising trend over the five year period. However, alleged
offenders born in the Russian Federation, Romania, Vietnam, Former
Yugoslavia, New Zealand, Turkey, and Lebanon were processed at a higher
rate than the Australian-born in each of the five years. The 1997-98
statistics produce high alleged offender rates for those born in Somalia,
Uruguay, and Thailand.

Among all the groups listed in the Victorian statistics, the highest proportion
of alleged offenders processed for violent offences were the Fijian-born.
More than a third of alleged offenders born in Cambodia and Vietnam was
processed for drug offences in 1997-98, about a quarter of the alleged
offenders born in Indonesia and Thailand was also processed for drug
offences.

Since 1994-95 alleged and distinct offenders born in Vietnam were the largest overseas-born group processed by Victoria Police.

Recent gang rape attacks in Sydney focused attention on Muslim and Lebanese Australian groups when evidence was presented in court that one woman was referred to as an "Aussie pig" and was told she would be sexually assaulted "Leb style".

PEOPLE born overseas committed one in seven of crimes in Victoria last financial year, including a quarter of rapes and one in five murders.

The anatomy of crime in Victoria, obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun, shows those born in Somalia, Lebanon and New Zealand had the highest crime-per-population rates in Victoria.

They are followed by Turkish, Vietnamese and then Australian-born criminals.

One in 20 Lebanon-born Victorians were offenders compared with one in 31 born in Australia.

The revelations have sparked calls from crime victims for tougher deportation and screening of immigrants.