Islanders in crime survey

New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has launched a A$1.1 million ($1.25 million) campaign to tackle violent and anti-social behaviour among people of Pacific Islander background.

Carr said that for reasons unknown, people of Pacific Islands origin accounted for a disproportionately high amount of crime in the state.

In 2001, 19 per cent of juvenile offenders in the Sydney suburb of Blacktown were of Pacific Island origin and that figure rose to 33 per cent, or one-third of all detainees, by the middle of last year.