Firearms Homicide in Australia

Through its National Homicide Monitoring Program the Australian Institute of Criminology has analysed over 2000 Australian homicides which occurred in the last seven years. These 470 incidents involved 586 victims  24 per cent of all homicide victims. In 94 per cent of firearm incidents the offender was a male. The paper highlights that 35 per cent of all firearm homicides involved intimate partners, and 1 in 5 of all firearm homicides was followed by the suicide of the offender. The policy response here must focus on violence prevention in the broadest sense. Forty-six per cent of firearms incidents involved a weapon that is (now) prohibited or restricted as a result of the initiatives following the Port Arthur tragedy of 1996. These incidents accounted for 55 per cent of the victims of firearm homicide. This paper is part of the Institute’s increased focus on firearms and violence, and by reporting patterns and trends it will add to policy relevant data which will help shape a less violent Australia.