Initiated in 2001 by the Board of Management of the National Crime Statistics Unit (NCSU), the Differences in Recorded Crime Statistics (DiRCS) project investigated whether the underlying differences between Australian State and territory Recorded Crime Victim Statistics (RCVS) data were due in part to differences in police recording practices or due to other factors. The DiRCS project identified five key phases that occurred when a crime had been committed: what crime occurred, what crime was reported to police, what crime was recorded by police, how was crime recorded by police, and how crime statistics were compiled from police records. In order to investigate each of the five phases, a series of subprojects were developed to investigate each phase, with eight subprojects total. Evidence was found indicating that RCVS data for assault and sexual assault were not currently comparable across all states and territories due to the different bases on which these offenses were recorded. Some jurisdictions almost always recorded a reported criminal incident on their crime recording system, whereas other jurisdictions apply a form of threshold test prior to a record being made. A significant difference had resulted in the measured levels of recorded crime across states and territories for these offense types. Lastly, the project found that once a crime had been recorded in a Crime Reporting System, there was no evidence to suggest that processes within any state or territory had a significant impact on differences in recorded crime statistics. Figures