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28th annual report of the Australian Institute of Criminology, 2000

ISSN 0311-449X
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2000

Enabling legislation, objectives and functions

The AIC has been established under section 5 of the Criminology Research Act 1971 (the Act) as a body corporate.

The functions of the AIC, as stated in section 6 of the Act, are:

  1. to conduct, or arrange for the conduct of, such criminological research as is approved by the Board [of Management] or is requested by the Attorney-General;
  2. to communicate to the Commonwealth, the States, and the Northern Territory, the results of research conducted by the Institute;
  3. to conduct, or arrange for the conduct of, such seminars and courses of training or instruction for persons engaged, or to be engaged, in criminological research or in work related to the prevention or correction of criminal behaviour as are approved by the Board or are requested by the Attorney-General;
  4. to advise the [Criminology Research] Council in relation to needs for, and programmes of, criminological research;
  5. to provide secretarial and administrative services for the Council;
  6. to give advice and assistance in relation to any research performed wholly or partly with moneys provided out of the Fund;
  7. to give advice in relation to the compilation of statistics relating to crime;
  8. to publish such material resulting from or connected with the performance of its functions as is approved by the Board;
    1. to collect information and statistics (without detracting from, and in the context of, the overall collecting and coordinating role of the Australian Bureau of Statistics);
    2. to provide information and advice to Departments, agencies and authorities of the Commonwealth, of the States, and of the Northern Territory dealing with the administration of criminal justice;
    3. to collaborate, in and outside Australia, with governments, institutions and authorities, and with bodies and persons, in relation to research, or the training of persons, in or in connection with the administration of criminal justice; and
  9. to do anything incidental or conducive to the performance of any of the foregoing functions.

Organisation structure and address

The AIC operates from offices at 74 Leichhardt Street, Griffith, Canberra, ACT. The organisation's structure is shown in Figure 1.

Responsible minister

The responsible minister is the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator, the Honourable Amanda Vanstone.

Figure 1: structure of the Australian Institute of Criminology Organisational chart