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Annual report 2006/07
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2007
ISSN 0311-449X
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Agency overview
The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) is Australia's pre-eminent national crime and criminal justice research agency. The AIC conducts timely and proactive research on crime and criminology and provides the Australian Government with a unique knowledge base from which to inform policy. Its research is funded primarily by the Australian Government but individual projects may be funded by state and territory governments or nongovernment agencies. In addition the Institute receives significant in-kind support from state and territory governments for its long term monitoring programs and research projects.
In 2006-07 the AIC had three work areas Research Services, Information Services and Corporate Services.
Figure 1: Structure of the Australian Institute of Criminology
Research Services
The objective of Research Services is to conduct research on crime and justice issues in order to provide timely, policy-relevant advice to the Australian Government and other key clients.
The strategic priorities of Research Services are to:
- provide information on, and analysis of, the causes, control and prevention of crime, and on the criminal justice system
- develop innovative products and services in the field of criminological research and information to better meet the needs of key clients and stakeholders, including the provision of consultancy services
- anticipate the needs of major stakeholders by conducting proactive research into emerging areas of crime, including maintaining the ability to respond quickly to the needs of government.
During 2006-07, there were four research teams within Research Services, each with a different focus.
- The Crime Monitoring Program's main objectives are to enhance and promote knowledge of some of Australia's central crime issues: homicide, armed robbery, firearms and illicit drug use and crime.
- The Crime Reduction and Review Program reflects the AIC's commitment to implement ways of promoting research, evaluation and knowledge exchange among crime reduction practitioners and policy makers in Australia.
- The Global, Economic and Electronic Crime Program's focus is to provide information on and analysis of the causes, extent, prevention and control of transnational criminal activity, economic crime, high tech crime and other complex and sophisticated criminal activity.
- The Justice and Crime Analysis Program seeks to identify the nature and extent of particular crimes within the community, to identify the number and characteristics of people detained in custody and to identify trends in crime across time.
Research activities within the Institute fall into two main categories: national monitoring programs and crime and justice projects. During the year the Institute commenced a range of new projects, including the development of a national amphetamine-type stimulants strategy, fraud against the Australian Government, business assessments of computer use security, and violence in Indigenous communities. Outcomes from the crime and justice programs are discussed in the next chapter.
Monitoring programs are core research activities of the Institute, which is a leader in the field of crime and justice monitoring, administering highly productive national monitoring programs. These programs collect specialised data not availableelsewhere, and each releases an annual report analysing trends and characteristics revealed by the data. Such data are widely used to inform whole of government reporting on the crime and justice sector and to support policy initiatives across all levels of government. Developing and maintaining monitoring programs relies on extensive in kind assistance and support from all jurisdictions. In 2006-07 the Institute was responsible for seven monitoring programs:
National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) - The program has collected and analysed information on all homicides (murder and manslaughter, excluding driving causing death) in Australia since 1990. In its seventeenth year of operation, the NHMP continues to provide strategic policy and operational information on homicide in Australia. As a data source it is recognised nationally and internationally as a pre-eminent homicide data collection program. It is due to the ongoing support of all state and territory police services that the NHMP is able to maintain its position as an exemplary data collection program. The dataset holds information on over 5,743 offenders and 5,617 victims.
Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) - DUMA currently collects quarterly drug use information from police detainees at nine sites across Australia: Southport and Brisbane (Queensland), East Perth (Western Australia), Bankstown and Parramatta (New South Wales) and Elizabeth and Adelaide City (South Australia) and, since January 2006 in Melbourne and Darwin. The collection is the only ongoing survey of offenders and has over 25,000 records including 20,000 urine specimens. The central objectives of DUMA include examination of the relationship between drugs and crime and the monitoring of local drug markets and of drug use patterns by detainees across time. The quarterly data collection provides an opportunity for policy makers and law enforcement agencies to respond to early warning indicators and emerging issues in a timely fashion.
National Firearms Theft Monitoring Program - This new program reports on the nature and characteristics of reported firearms thefts in Australia to provide information on the performance of firearms regulation and monitor the use of stolen firearms in criminal activities. The program released its first annual report this year, reporting on 1,470 stolen firearms.
National Deaths in Custody Program - The program has examined the circumstances of deaths in prison, police custody and juvenile detention around Australia since 1992, and reports on the number of deaths in custody in Australia, and the patterns and trends observed in those deaths. The collection holds information on 1,878 cases.
National Armed Robbery Monitoring Program (NARMP) - The program's aim is to examine weapon use in armed robbery and to monitor trends and patterns over time in the commission of offences. This program began in 2001 following consultations with key stakeholders in the area. Since 2003, state and territory police services have forwarded armed robbery data on agreed variables to the AIC for analysis and reporting. The most recent annual report provided data on 1,467 offenders and 5,467 incidents of armed robbery in the community.
National Juveniles in Detention Monitoring Program - provides a comprehensive annual overview of young people in detention across Australia including gender, and Indigenous status and age of juveniles, and whether they are on remand or sentenced. There were 605 juveniles in detention at 30 June 2005.
Fraud Against the Commonwealth Monitoring Program - In October 2006, the AIC became responsible for the fraud annual report to the Minister, which includes an annual survey of fraud committed against Australian Government agencies, as required by the Commonwealth fraud control guidelines.
Research services core activities include producing reports and papers and disseminating key findings from its research activities. The reports, conference papers and publications on trends and topical issues produced from the monitoring programs and project work inform and encourage public and policy debate. Details are listed in appendixes 1-3. To meet the Institute's commitment to disseminating its research findings, Research Services also manages conferences, roundtables, seminars and media liaison. These are discussed in the next chapter.
Information Services
The objectives of the Information Services group are:
- to ensure AIC researchers maintain their competitive edge through access to the most up to date and relevant information
- to facilitate AIC access to and management of corporate information and research data
- to provide stakeholders with information about the work and output of the AIC and act as a gateway to the wider world of crime and criminal justice information.
The strategic priorities of the group are to:
- disseminate high quality publications based on the Institute's and other research in a timely way, particularly on the Institute's website
- support research projects and monitoring programs by the provision of information discovery and delivery services
- provide the public and stakeholders information about the Institute and its work, and about crime and criminal justice resources via the website.
Core activities include:
- publications
- website services
- JV Barry Library services
- data services
- CINCH database of Australian crime and criminal justice information
- contributions to Australian and international information networks.
Information Services is responsible for editing, typesetting and printing the Institute's publications, whether in print or online format. Publications range from detailed research reports to one-page fact sheets, and include regular reports from each of the monitoring programs. Publications for 2006-07 are listed in Appendix 1.
The Institute's website is the principal vehicle for the Institute to meet the Minister's expectation of wide dissemination of the results of AIC-conducted and CRC-funded research. It provides information about the work of the Institute and the CRC, and acts as a gateway to information on crime and criminal justice in Australia.
The intranet is the main knowledge sharing and development vehicle for the Institute, particularly for the uniform promulgation of policies, procedures and guidelines.
The purpose of the JV Barry Library is to assist research staff in undertaking their research, by keeping them up to date in their field of expertise, finding and delivering relevant resources when a new project begins, and finding answers to their reference questions. The library also responds to public inquiries.
Corporate Services
The Corporate Services group provides financial, information technology, human resource, facilities, procurement and contracts, administration and secretariat services to support the Institute's research and dissemination outputs, the Criminology Research Council and the Australian Violence and Crime Prevention Awards. The team has also provided project support for the Fraud Against the Commonwealth Monitoring Program.
Specialist external providers for ICT and payroll are utilised to ensure cost effective and timely corporate services information and advice to support all elements of the Institute. A wide range of corporate and support services are provided by Corporate Services, including:
- human resource management
- ICT
- financial management and reporting
- accounts payable and receivable
- contractual arrangements
- fleet and asset management
- stores management
- freedom of information
- occupational health and safety
- insurance
- office services
- building services
- security and privacy management
- risk management
- fraud control
- environmental policies
- all general services.
Outcome and output structure
The AIC has one outcome:
To inform government of activities which aim to promote justice and reduce crime
And two outputs:
Output 1.1 - Policy advice and publications
Output 1.2 - Library, information and reference services to support policy advice and publications
Performance against these is reported in the next chapter.