Annual report 2002-2003

ISSN 0311-449X
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2003

Introduction [to CRC annual report]

The CRC was established by the Criminology Research Act 1971 and is an integral part of an Australian Government funded two-pronged approach to research on criminology issues in Australia today.

The function of the CRC is to control and administer the Criminology Research Fund, and for that purpose to examine and determine the relative importance and urgency of projects for which the expenditure of moneys from the fund may be authorised. The Act also provides that the functions of the AIC include those of advising the council in relation to the need for, and programs of, criminological research, and providing secretarial and administrative services to the council.

The principal objective of the CRC is to support research which is relevant to current and future public policy issues, foster the undertaking of quality criminological research, and ensure CRC supported criminological research is disseminated effectively. It is essential to the effort by Australian governments to provide facilities for the study of the causes and effects of criminal behaviour and of means for its correction and prevention.

The council consists of eight members who represent the federal government, the states and the Northern Territory. This composition of the CRC ensures that areas targeted for research funding reflect both national and state priorities. The federal representative is appointed by the Attorney-General and state and territory representatives are appointed by the Attorney-General on the nomination of the responsible state or territory minister.

The Crimes Legislation Enhancement Act 2003 made amendments to the Criminology Research Act 1971 (Items 6A-6P of Schedule 2 of the Act) to provide for the inclusion of the Australian Capital Territory on the CRC.

The council currently meets three times a year and primarily dedicates its meetings to the following issues:

March - to establish council strategies and priorities for the forthcoming year
July - to target specific areas for grants and strategic development
November-determination of general grants.

Since its establishment the CRC has provided a forum for Attorneys General around Australia, and their representatives to assess needs in the field of criminology research and to allocate moneys from the Criminology Research Fund to specific research projects in universities, government institutions and elsewhere.

The fund itself is built up from money allocated every year by the Australian governments.

In conjunction with the AIC the CRC ensures that Australian research into criminological issues remains relevant and focussed on the needs and concerns of the Australian community. The AIC coordinates research projects to be undertaken on a national basis at governmental level and advises the CRC in relation to needs for, and programmes of, criminological research.

Details of projects funded during the year together with summaries for the follow-ing completed projects received during the year are provided in the next section:

An Investigation into the Experiences of Child Complainants of Sexual Abuse Within the Criminal Justice System
Developing a Unique Risk of Violence Tool for Australian Indigenous Offenders
How Australian Schools are Responding to the Problem of Peer Victimisation in Schools
The Language Processing and Production Skills of Young Offenders: Implications for Enhancing Prevention and Intervention Strategies
Anti-Libidinal Medication and Men with Disabilities: A Long Term Follow-Up of Outcomes Following Third Party Consent
Community-Based Parenting Program for the Prevention of Adolescent Antisocial Behaviour

Further information is available on the Council's web site at <http://www.aic.gov.au/crc>.

Details of projects currently in progress are listed in the next section.

Reports of completed projects undertaken with council funds are distributed to each council member, who ensures that relevant persons and organisations are made aware of the availability of the reports. Two copies of each report are lodged in the J V Barry Library of the AIC. Through the library, the reports are listed on Kinetica, Australia's national shared cataloguing system and the largest bibliographic network in the country; and also on CINCH, the Australian Criminology Database which is publicly available online and on CD-ROM. With hundreds of libraries Australia-wide participating in Kinetica, CRC reports receive wide coverage concerning their availability. Details of CRC funded projects, and the reports submitted in fulfilment of the projects, are on the CRC's section of the institute's web site. Reports are also available from the J V Barry Library through inter-library loan.

Under grant funding arrangements the grantee is responsible for the distribution of the final report. Many researchers choose to publish in the form of books and journal articles, making them readily available to the broader community. They also distribute copies to appropriate departments and agencies. Finally, grantees are required to provide a draft paper suitable for publication in the AIC'S series Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice.

The council has a commitment to quality assurance, and as part of this approach seeks to create improved opportunities for publication of reports from research which it funds. The council therefore retains the right to publish all or part of selected research products.

Criminology Research Fund

Contributions to the Criminology Research Fund by the participating governments for the 2002-2003 financial year totalled $437,000. The Australian Government contributed $289,000¹ and each state and the Northern Territory made contributions on a pro-rata population basis, individual contributions being as follows:

State	$
New South Wales	50,999
Victoria	37,265
Queensland	28,175
Western Australia	14,732
South Australia	11,662
Tasmania	3,631
Northern Territory	1,535

Details of expenditure and income are shown in the Financial Statements section.

¹ In the 2002-2003 Agency Budget Statement, the total Australian Government appropriation for the CRC was $0.289 million. The council had one Budget outcome: criminological research, which informs the Commonwealth and the States. The appropriate to the CRC was to meet 'administered' costs for the single government outcome.

Membership

The council itself does not employ any staff members but provides a fee to the AIC to provide academic advice and secretarial and administrative services for the Council. Dr Russell Smith, Deputy Director of Research, at the AIC acted as Academic Adviser to the Council and Ms Kathy Mildren acted as CRC Administrator throughout the year. The council funds a Research Fellow, who is located within the AIC and undertakes research at the direction of the council.

During the year members of the council were as follows:

Federal

Mr Ian Carnell
General Manager
Criminal Justice and Security
Attorney-General's Department

Victoria

Mr Peter Harmsworth
Secretary
Department of Justice
(May 1999-March 2003)

Ms Penny Armytage
Secretary
Department of Justice
(from June 2003)

South Australia

Ms Joy Wundersitz
Director
Office of Crime Statistics
Attorney-General's Department
(July 1995-March 2003)

Ms Kate Lennon
Chief Executive
Attorney-General's Department and
Department of Justice
(from March 2003)

New South Wales

Mr Laurie Glanfield (Chair)
Director-General
Attorney-General's Department

Queensland

Dr Kenneth Levy
Director-General
Department of Justice

Western Australia

Mr Alan Piper
Director-General
Department of Justice

Northern Territory

Mr Richard Coates
Chief Executive Officer
Northern Territory Department of Justice

Tasmania

Mr Norman Reaburn
Director
Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania

Meetings

Two meetings, held on 4 July 2002 and 20 March 2003, were convened at the AIC and the meeting on 28 November 2002 was held in Hobart, Tasmania.

At the meeting on 20 March 2003, Mr Laurie Glanfield was unanimously re-elected Chair of the Council. At this meeting the CRC appointed its representatives from the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales as members of the Board of Management of the AIC.

Council Policy

The CRC relies heavily on the work of Australia's academic community. Council sees a strong and positive dialogue with the academic community as crucial and accordingly convenes a biennial consultation meeting with a number of key Australian academics in criminology.

The following scoping papers, roundtables and reviews were commissioned by council throughout the year and are under consideration for further development, although resources may not be available to achieve all of them. Additional information on topics under consideration can be found on pages 95-96:

Mental Health and Criminal Justice: A Review of the Relationship between Mental Disorders and Offending Behaviours and the Management of Mentally Abnormal Offenders in the Health and Criminal Justice Services
Victims - Criminal Justice or a Social Welfare Responsibility
Indigenous Offender Programs
Resilience to Offending in High Risk Groups
Chronic Offenders and 'Poly-Users': Use of Social Infrastructure

The Guidelines for grants issued by the council with application forms for grants, state that the criteria adopted by the council in consideration of applications include the following:

public policy relevance
the extent to which the proposed research will have practical application and contribute to the understanding, prevention or correction of criminal behaviour
the likelihood of the proposed research making a substantial and original contribution to criminological knowledge
the cost effectiveness of the research
the soundness of the design and methodology and the feasibility of the research
the competence of the applicant(s) or principal investigator(s) to undertake the proposed research
Ethics Committee approval, where appropriate
availability of data, where required
the extent of funding or in-kind support obtained from relevant agencies.

A panel comprising the Academic Adviser to the Council and two senior criminologists (selected by the council from recommendations by ANZSOC) considers applications for general grants. The panel this year comprised Dr Russell Smith, Dr Janet Chan and Dr Paul Mazzerole, who forwarded their recommendations to the CRC for consideration at the November meeting.

Appreciation

The council wishes to express its gratitude for the support given by Dr Samantha Jeffries as the Council's Research Fellow from February 2002 to October 2002, Dr Russell Smith as Academic Adviser to the Council, panel members and staff members of the institute: Ms Kathy Mildren, Administrator, and Ms Robyn Duncan, Accounts Officer.

Appointment of Criminology Research Council Research Fellow

Associate Professor Patrick Jobes, from the University of New England, has been appointed to the position of Criminology Research Council Research Fellow, commencing in August 2003.

Freedom of Information Act

The statement made in the AIC's annual report also applies to the council.

The council received no requests for information under the provisions of the Act during the year ending 30 June 2003.

Appropriations and outcomes

The following chapter details activities undertaken by the council during the reporting period which fulfil the requirements of this government outcome.