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Multicultural Communities

Approximately 25 percent of people in Victoria were born outside Australia, and about 18 percent speak languages other than English. To design, implement and review effective services targeted towards Victorian communities, it is crucial that we better understand the concerns and priorities of Victoria's culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. The Department of Justice utilises comprehensive research to further this aim.

Perceptions of crime and safety in multicultural communities

Government-commissioned research in the City of Darebin indicated that people from non-English speaking backgrounds have different perceptions of crime, safety and policing than people from English-speaking backgrounds. This means that it will be unrepresentative to assume that everyone has the same views as an 'average' of the local government area. The wider community's opinions will be much more varied.

Multicultural perspectives of crime and safety study

Detailed, tailored research is a crucial step towards accurately identifying issues, views and experiences of members of multicultural communities. It's especially helpful for helping members of the community with limited proficiency in English. The Multicultural Perspectives of Crime and Safety study was conducted in the City of Greater Shepparton, the City of Darebin and the City of Greater Dandenong. The research used focus groups to ensure broad-based representation including women, men, young people, older people, and the newly arrived. Topics chosen were appropriate and culturally sensitive.

The study's key findings focused on what multicultural communities think about crime and safety. The general themes and issues were similar to those concerning English-speaking participants. But during the focus groups, a different underlying rationale for these perceptions emerged.

• Older people, women, and people with limited English skills identified more strongly with their cultural group as their 'community' than with their local area.
• The notion of 'community' as defined by geography, common interest and cultural group was confirmed, but the definition of 'community' was generally broader for young people.
• Women expressed concerns about their safety, and perceived the level of crime to be high, more often than men.
• Younger people were more likely to consider themselves safe and say that crime was not a problem in their area.
• Communication, particularly for those lacking confidence in their English skills, was a significant barrier to feeling safe, and many were concerned they could not access help quickly.
• Young people and men were more likely to be aware of available emergency services and more likely to know how to access them.
• People felt safer and more comfortable in areas with an existing range of agencies and services.
• Nearly all groups feared some form of racial discrimination, including vilification, as a result of looking different.
• Some thought they were treated negatively by members of the general community, police and other service providers because they were easily identified as belonging to a particular community.
• Public transport, particularly travelling on trains at night, was deemed unsafe.
• Drugs, and evidence of drugs, were a reason many felt unsafe in their local areas.