Annual report 2003/04

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

Introduction {to CRC annual report}

The Criminology Research Council (CRC) was established by the Criminology Research Act 1971 and is an integral part of a state, territory and Australian Government-funded approach to research on criminology issues in Australia today.

The function of the CRC is to control and administer the Criminology Research Fund, and to that purpose 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 to ensure CRC-supported criminological research is disseminated effectively. It is essential to the effort by the Australian Government 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 nine members who represent the Australian Government, the states and the territories. This composition of the CRC ensures that areas targeted for research funding reflect both national and state priorities. The Australian Government representative is appointed by the Attorney-General; state and territory representatives are appointed by the Attorney-General on the nomination of the responsible state or territory minister.

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

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

Since 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, state and territory governments.

In conjunction with the AIC, the CRC ensures that Australian research into criminological issues remains relevant and focused 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 programs of, criminological research. Without such research, the role of the Australian Government in the vitally important tasks of law making and law enforcement would remain relatively uninformed and lacking in important policy insights.

Details of projects funded during the year together with summaries of completed projects received during the year are provided in the following section, Research projects. Further information is available on the council's website at http://www.aic.gov.au/crc

Reports of completed projects undertaken with council funds are distributed to each council member, who ensure that relevant persons and agency sections are made aware of the availability of the reports. Council members also seek expert advice from their jurisdictions on the possibility of further research and reports identified to be of interest.

Two copies of each report are lodged in the JV Barry library at 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. Details of CRC-funded projects, and the reports submitted in fulfilment of the projects, are posted on the CRC's website. Reports are also available from the JV Barry library through interlibrary 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 Trends & issues series.

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 2003-04 financial year totalled $455,000. In the 2003-04 Agency Budget Statement, the total Australian Government appropriation for the CRC was $0.295 million. The council had one budget outcome: criminological research which informs the Australian Government and the states. The appropriation to the CRC was to meet 'administered' costs for the single government outcome. Each state and the Northern Territory made contributions on a pro-rata population basis, individual contributions being as follows:

	$
New South Wales	54,039
Victoria	39,658
Queensland	30,169
Western Australia	15,683
South Australia	12,370
Tasmania	3,849
Australian Capital Territory	2,621
Northern Territory	1,611

Details of expenditure and income are shown in the financial statements at the end of this report.

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 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. Associate Professor Patrick Jobes, from the University of New England, was appointed to the research fellow position for a two-year period and commenced duty in August 2003.

During the year members of the council were as follows:

New South Wales

Laurie Glanfield
Chairman of the CRC
Director-General
Attorney-General's Department

Australian Government

Ian Carnell
General Manager
Criminal Justice and Security
Attorney-General's Department
(April 2000-March 2004)

Victoria

Penny Armytage
Secretary
Department of Justice

Queensland

Dr Kenneth Levy
Director-General
Department of Justice
(December 1990-November 2003)

Terrence Ryan
Director, strategic policy
Department of Justice and Attorney-General
(from May 2004)

Western Australia

Alan Piper
Director-General
Department of Justice

South Australia

Kate Lennon
Chief Executive
Attorney-General's Department and
Department of Justice
(March 2003-February 2004)

Tasmania

Norman Reaburn
Director
Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania

Northern Territory

Richard Coates
Chief Executive Officer
Department of Justice

Australian Capital Territory

Tim Keady
Chief Executive Officer
Department of Justice and Community Safety
Attorney-General's Department
(from July 2003)

Meetings

The meeting held on 10 July 2003 was convened in Perth, Western Australia; the meetings held on 27 November 2003 and 25 March 2004 were convened at the AIC.

At the meeting on 25 March 2004, Laurie Glanfield was unanimously re-elected chair of the council. At this meeting, the CRC appointed its representatives from the Northern Territory, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania 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 2004 consultation meeting was convened on 25 March 2004 at the AIC and was attended by academics, council members, the acting director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, together with the council's adviser and research fellow.

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:

• resilience to offending in high-risk groups;
• juror stress and debriefing;
• mental health issues audit; and
• chronic offenders and poly-users: young people's 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; and
• 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 the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Inc.) considers applications for general grants. The panel this year comprised Dr Russell G Smith, Dr Janet Chan and Dr Paul Mazerolle, who forwarded their recommendations to the CRC for consideration at the November meeting.

Appreciation

The council wishes to express its appreciation to Dr Ken Levy, the Queensland representative on the council from 1990-2003; Ian Carnell, the Australian Government representative from 2000-04; Kate Lennon, the South Australian representative from 2003-04; Dr Russell Smith, academic adviser to the council; panel members Dr Janet Chan and Dr Paul Mazerolle; and staff members of the institute.

Freedom of information

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 2004.

Appropriations and outcomes

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