Annual report 2003/04

ISSN 0311-449X
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2004

Year in review

The Australian Institute of Criminology plays an important role conducting timely and proactive research on crime and criminology to provide the Australian Government with a unique knowledge base from which to inform policy. The year 2003-04 has been a period of transition and consolidation for the AIC, with the previous director, Dr Adam Graycar, resigning in September after nearly ten years of service. During his tenure, Dr Graycar moulded the institute into a responsive and highly productive research agency. The AIC continues to build on this legacy in informing government of activities which aim to promote justice and reduce crime. This has been achieved through the conduct and dissemination of its research work via publications, the website, conferences, occasional seminars, AIC staff attendance at advisory committees, conferences and workshops, and direct links with other government agencies and the media.

The later part of this year has seen the strengthening of relationships with the AIC's responsible minister - the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator the Hon. Chris Ellison, and the Australian Government Attorney-General's Department. Formal and informal procedures have been fostered to enable closer ties and improved information flows.

A multitude of projects have been completed for Australian Government agencies such as the Attorney-General's Department, the Office of the Status of Women, Department of Family and Community Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services. We continue to work collaboratively with Australian, state and territory governments. During the year, research projects have been carried out for the state and territory governments of Victoria, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and New South Wales.

The AIC also works closely with police services, primarily through its drug use monitoring in Australia project, firearms monitoring program, homicide and armed robbery monitoring programs, and its work for the Australian High Tech Crime Centre. Collaboration with corrective services is essential for the maintenance of the institute's deaths in custody monitoring program.

Research services is supported by the Information services and Administrative services sections. Administrative services ensures that the institute's governance structures are of the highest standards and that the institute effectively risk manages its assets. Information services has expanded its knowledge management to include the institute datasets. This represents a significant cultural shift in the management of the institute's intellectual property. The JV Barry library continues its important role in providing criminal justice information to the wider community. During this period the AIC website has been redesigned and now receives almost 28,000 visitors per day.

During this transitional year I would like to acknowledge the important strategic and policy advice the board of management has provided to me in my capacity as acting director. On a day to day basis, the AIC could not achieve its goals without the excellent and dedicated staff who continue to be highly productive and supportive of each other and the goals of the institute. I look forward to working with the board and staff to further strengthen the AIC's position within government and the wider community, and maintain the excellent quality of research that has become the defining characteristic of the AIC.

Toni Makkai
Acting director

Outlook for 2004-05

The AIC will continue to conduct research and produce publications and reports of the highest quality. A slight restructure of the research groups aims to clarify and streamline Research services. For the forthcoming year, the institute plans to enhance its monitoring projects, while at the same time broadening the scope of new non-ongoing projects to facilitate and expand collaborative relationships between agencies.

Agency overview

The AIC is the national research centre for the analysis and dissemination of criminological data and information. Its research is mostly funded by the Australian Government and the research program is approved by the board of management which consists of Australian Government, state and territory representatives. Most of the institute's work falls under the Australian Government's national research priority area, safeguarding Australia, and in particular the third priority goal of protecting Australia from terrorism and crime. It also contributes to the goal of strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric under priority area 2, promoting and maintaining good health.

The research program is responsible for the exploration, description, analysis and explanation of issues affecting crime and justice. The research conducted:

• is founded on an understanding of the latest theoretical and methodological advances in the area;
• produces outcomes which will inform criminal justice policies and other policies likely to impact directly on justice and the reduction of crime; and
• provides opportunities for the institute to be a national leader in criminological research as well as in collaboration with government agencies, other research organisations and individual researchers.

The AIC seeks to promote a cooperative and harmonious work environment through:

• integrity: ethical and honest behaviour;
• professionalism: serving clients and stakeholders in a practical, diligent, thorough and objective fashion;
• openness: being accessible and responsive to staff, clients and stakeholders so as to build trust and confidence;
• fairness: treating all equitably and justly;
• respect: respecting the diversity of ideas, backgrounds and cultures of staff, clients and stakeholders.

The corporate direction has been effectively communicated to institute staff through:

• staff meetings to inform and update staff on corporate issues and directions;
• regular research meetings, held to plan, discuss and report on projects; and
• the intranet.

Enabling legislation, objectives and functions

The AIC was 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 programs 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.

External governance

Board of management

Section 9 of the Criminology Research Act 1971 provides that the board shall consist of the director, three members appointed by the Attorney-General and four members appointed by the CRC. CRC members are appointed for one calendar year and take up their appointments at the first meeting of the calendar year. Table 1 shows the AIC board of management appointees at 30 June 2004.

The board met on three occasions during the year:

• 10 July 2003 in Perth;
• 27-28 November 2003 in Canberra; and
• 26 March 2004 in Canberra.

Table 1 : AIC board of management

Director	Appointed	Resigned
Dr Adam Graycar	7.11.94	10.9.03
Dr Toni Makkai (acting director)	11.9.03
Appointed by the Attorney-General of Australia	Appointed	Resigned
Professor Richard Fox (Chair), Faculty of Law, Monash University, Victoria	29.4.98
Nigel Hadgkiss APMM, Director, Building Industry Taskforce, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Victoria	11.4.00
Resignation during the year
Ian Carnell, Deputy Secretary, Criminal Justice and Security, Australian Government Attorney-General's Department (1)	11.4.00	23.3.04
Appointed by the CRC	Appointed	Resigned
Richard Coates, Chief Executive Officer, Department of Justice, Northern Territory	20.3.03
Tim Keady, Chief Executive, Department of Justice and Community Safety, Australian Capital Territory	25.3.04
Norman Reaburn, Director, Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania	25.3.04
Terrence Ryan, Director, Strategic Policy, Department of Justice & Attorney-General, Queensland	24.5.04
Terms completed
Laurie Glanfield AM, Director-General, Attorney-General's Department, New South Wales	18.4.02	25.3.04
Alan Piper, Director-General, Department of Justice, Western Australia	18.4.02	25.3.04
Resignation during the year
Dr Ken Levy RFD, Director-General, Department of Justice and Attorney-General, Queensland	20.3.03	10.11.03
(1) The Deputy is Dr Dianne Heriot, Assistant Secretary, Community Safety and Justice Branch, Australian Government Attorney-General's Department

Audit committee

The institute also has an audit committee (see page 72). An internal audit of research was conducted in March 2004. The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the institute's research practices and publication activities, which included an assessment of:

• research and publication processes to ensure correctness of the information published;
• timeliness of the information provided to users;
• appropriateness of staff allocated to research projects to ensure adequate management of these;
• the AIC's compliance with its own procedural guidelines relating to data storage, retention, authorship, publication, supervision and research misconduct;
• the internal controls in place surrounding and supporting the research and publication process to promote high standards and discourage misconduct; and
• the degree to which elements of better practice have been adopted within the AIC's research and publication activities.

Controls over research and publications activities were found to be generally sound and compliant with Management of scientific research and development projects in Commonwealth agencies - better practice guide for senior management 2003 from the ANAO.

Internal governance

Executive management committee

The Institute has an executive management committee, which oversees the strategic management of the institute. The committee is comprised of management, staff and an occupational health and safety representative.

Research conduct framework

The AIC has instituted a comprehensive research framework which details the context and method by which all research should be carried out. It serves to maintain a clear focus and goal for research within the AIC's legislated objectives and functions. The guidelines ensure that research conducted is of sound method and analysis, complies with ethical guidelines, analysis is appropriate and that findings are presented in a clear, concise and jargon-free manner.

Research value/risk assessment

Prior to any research project being carried out, a value/risk assessment is undertaken, a scheme implemented in 2003-04. This assessment takes into account all issues that could arise from the research, from the integrity of the methodology, to compliance with relevant legislation and stakeholder obligations. If a project is judged as too risky, the approach is fundamentally reconstructed or the project is abandoned.

Ethics committee

The AIC ethics committee has been in operation since 1992. The purpose of this committee is to advise the director as to whether approval should be granted for a project to proceed under AIC auspices. The committee reviews research projects involving human subjects to ensure that appropriate safeguards exist to ensure conduct of the research is consistent with ethical standards. During this reporting period the committee reviewed twelve proposals.

The committee has six members with backgrounds in law, religion, social work and research, as required by the National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines for ethics committees. The current chairperson is Dr Deborah Mitchell, director, ACSPRI Centre for Social Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University.

Responsible minister and portfolio

The minister responsible for the institute is the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator the Hon. Chris Ellison. The AIC falls under the Attorney-General's portfolio, and it is the Attorney-General who has the primary responsibility for the portfolio.

Organisational structure and address

In 2003-04 the AIC had three branches: Research services, Learning and knowledge development and Administrative services. The organisation's structure is shown in Figure 1.

Research services is responsible for coordinating, managing, conducting and disseminating research. Information services administers the JV Barry library and AIC website. Learning and knowledge development operates training courses, seminars and workshops on a range of criminology topics. Administrative services is responsible for the administrative and information technology function of the AIC.

The AIC operates from offices at 74 Leichhardt Street Griffith, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.

Performance, outcomes and outputs

The AIC has one budget outcome: to inform government of activities which aim to promote justice and reduce crime. There are two outputs for the AIC's outcome:

• output 1.1: policy advice and publications
• output 1.2: library, information and reference services to support policy advice and publications.

The following chapters report on activities undertaken by the institute which contributed to its output objectives during the reporting period. Table 2 lists the total resources for outcome 1.

The Institute measures its effectiveness by the following criteria:

• timely production of AIC research findings, primarily through publications;
• extent to which institute services and data are valued by key stakeholders;
• flexibility of the AIC to respond to changing policy priorities; and
• budget and financial outcomes.

This report focuses on these performance indicators. The research summary table (see page 47) outlines research projects conducted during the reporting period, with outputs created by each project.

Table 2: Total resources for outcome 1

	2003-04 budget ($'000)	2003-04 budget ($'000)	2004-05 budget estimate ($'000)
Revenue from government
Output 1.1: policy advice and publications	4,517	4,514	4,483
Output 1.2: library, information and reference services to support policy advice and publications	580	583	680
Total revenue from government contributing to price of departmental outputs	5,097	5,097	5,163
Revenue from other sources
Output 1.1: policy advice and publications	2,063	1,910	928
Output 1.2: library, information and reference services to support policy advice and publications	48	28	31
Total revenue from other sources	2,111	1,938	959
Total revenue from departmental outputs (Total revenues from government and from other sources)	7,208	7,035	6,122
Price of departmental outputs
Output 1.1: policy advice and publications	6,580	6,097	5,411
Output 1.2: library, information and reference services to support policy advice and publications	628	927	711
Total price of departmental outputs	7,208	7,024	6,122
Total estimated resourcing for outcome 1 (Total price of outputs and administered appropriations)	7,208	7,024	6,122
Average staffing level (number)	51.0	44.7	51.0
Note: Budget 2003-04 : refer to 2003-04 Portfolio Budget Statements and 2003-04 Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements Actual 2003-04 : as per the Audited 2003-04 Financial Statements Budget 2004-05 : refer to 2004-05 Portfolio Budget Statements

Progress report on implementation of the national research priorities

AIC research mainly falls under priority area 4, safeguarding Australia, and in particular the third goal of protecting Australia from terrorism and crime. It also contributes to the new goal of strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric under priority area 2, promoting and maintaining good health.

In mid-2003, the AIC provided an implementation plan to address the national research priorities, which was subsequently endorsed by Cabinet and placed on the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training website.

The Minister for Science invited research institutes and bodies to review and revise their implementation plans in light of the addition of four new goals in a number of priority areas. The AIC has revised its implementation plan, which was approved by the AIC board of management in July 2004.

During the past year, energies focused on the following areas:

Consultations with key stakeholder groups

Strategic consultations have been undertaken to identify research priorities and opportunities with a range of stakeholders, particularly those responsible for legal, policing and crime prevention policy.

Collaboration

To formalise effective working partnerships the AIC entered into a memorandum of understanding with the AFP. There have also been discussions with other Australian Government and state agencies to develop similar memoranda of understanding to enable policy and practice oriented research and capacity building that benefits the respective parties. To undertake a number of important and innovative research projects, the AIC entered into collaborative research arrangements with a number of research institutes, including AIATSIS and BOCSAR.

Building internal capacity

During the year the AIC extended its internal capacity to undertake certain kinds of research. This included the appointment of a research analyst with expertise in transnational crime and the secondment of AGD staff with policy expertise.

Adding value to existing datasets

As part of its core business the AIC is involved in ongoing data collection on a range of crime areas and issues of specific policy interest to the Australian Government - homicide, deaths in custody, firearms, armed robbery, juveniles in detention, and drug use by offenders. In the past year a series of products were released based on topic-specific analysis on these datasets. For example, a report was released on juvenile police detainees, derived from analysis of DUMA program data. Further examples included reports on contract killings and firearm-related deaths, which used data from the NHMP.