Annual report 2006/07

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2007
ISSN 0311-449X

Report on Performance

Performance, outcomes and outputs

The Institute performed well against its key outcome objectives during the reporting period. The Institute measures its effectiveness by the following criteria, which reflect the Minister's expectations of the Institute:

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

The summary table (Table 1) lists outputs and outcome/impact indicators for national monitoring programs and key research projects during the reporting period.

Table 1: Summary of outputs and impacts, 2006-07

Programs/projects	Key outputs	Outcome/impact
Violent crime
NHMP	Annual report Provision of data to key agencies	Increased public and key stakeholder awareness of homicide trends Homicide data used as indicator of national efforts to overcome Indigenous disadvantage
National armed robbery program	Annual report 1 T&I Provision of data to key agencies	Increased awareness amongst the public and industry groups of armed robbery characteristics and trends
ACT family violence incidents	Report published by client	Informs monitoring of family violence and responses over time
ACT Indigenous victims of family violence	Consultancy report to client	Improved evidence on violent victimisation in Indigenous communities
ACT sexual assault data	Consultancy report to client 1 presentation	Informed efforts to improve tracking of sexual assault matters within the criminal justice system Increased awareness of sexual assault occurrence and risk factors
Community attitudes to violence against women in Victoria	Report published by client 1 presentation	Improved evidence base on community attitudes Informed strategic planning and policy responses to violence against women
Criminal justice system responses to sexual assault	1 roundtable Consultancy report to client 2 papers to client	Informed strategic planning by key stakeholder
Property crime
National firearms theft monitoring program	Annual report Provision of data to key agencies	Increased awareness of the nature and extent of firearm theft amongst the public and key stakeholders Informs the deliberations of the APMC Firearms Policy Working Group
Bushfire arson	1 T&I 1 roundtable 12 Bushfire arson bulletins	Increased awareness amongst key stakeholders of issues Improved public awareness of bushfire arson
Crime against small business	1 T&I	Increased public and key stakeholder awareness of the extent and nature of crime against small business
Illegal activities in Australian fishing industry	Consultancy report to client	Increased awareness of issues amongst key stakeholders Informing policy and practice responses to illegal activities
Drugs
DUMA	1 technical workshop 2 annual reports 3 T&Is 4 newsletters Provision of data to key agencies	Improved evidence base on illicit drug use and offending with data cited in international and national reports on drug trends Expansion of program to two new sites
Amphetamine-type stimulants strategy	Draft report to client
Clandestine laboratory site remediation	Consultancy report to client 1 roundtable	Increased stakeholder awareness of current practices and issues
Drug use careers of offenders	1 T&I 1 TBP	Informing correctional policy and practice responses to drug dependency among inmates
Transnational and organised crime
Precursor chemical trade in Oceania	Draft report to client
Transnational crime	1 TBP 2 roundtables	Informed development of strategies to address corruption Increased public and key stakeholder awareness of effective responses to corruption
Economic and high tech crime
Consumer fraud	1 T&I Consultancy report to client	Increased public awareness of consumer fraud
High tech crime	6 High tech crime bulletins 2 reports to client 3 T&Is	Increased public and key stakeholder awareness of issues Informed policy and practice responses to high tech crime
Serious tax fraud prosecutions	Draft report to client
Technology and crime	1 T&I	Increased public and key stakeholder awareness of responses to technology enabled crime
International Crime Victimisation Survey	1 T&I	Improved information on trends in internet purchasing
Criminal justice responses
National juveniles in detention monitoring program	Annual report Provision of data to key agencies	Data used in the annual report on government services by the Steering Committee on Government Services
National deaths in custody monitoring program	Annual report Provision of data to key agencies	Monitoring implementation and impact of RCIADC recommendations Data used in report to UN
Community attitudes to Commonwealth criminal penalties	Consultancy report to client	Informed policy deliberations
Criminal trial delays	1 RPP	Informing policy and practice reforms in the criminal justice sector
Criminal justice responses to substance abuse and offending in Indigenous communities	1 roundtable Draft report to client
Performance measurement in drug law enforcement	Report published by client 1 T&I	Framework to inform future performance monitoring by police
Policing of illicit drugs in remote and regional Indigenous communities	2 reports published by client 1 T&I	Increasing public and key stakeholder awareness of nature and extent of use, and of good practice responses Informing policy and practice responses to illicit drug use
Queensland drug court evaluation	Draft report to client
Capacity building
Air cargo trial evaluation	Consultancy report to client	Informed operational and policy decision making
Crime prevention capacity building	12 CRMs	Increased public and key stakeholder awareness of crime prevention good practice
International assistance	PNG crime survey assessments to client	Improved research design and instruments
Missing persons	1 roundtable Draft report to client
NCCPP partnership	2 workshops 10 tip sheets Ongoing advice to AGD	Improved evaluative frameworks Increased community awareness of program and of crime prevention

Output 1.1: Policy advice and publications

Research undertaken by the AIC seeks to inform policy and practice in the crime and criminal justice sectors by:

• monitoring trends in crime and the criminal justice system
• building knowledge of offending and victimisation
• identifying emerging or changes to criminal activity
• building an evidence base for an effective criminal justice system and crime prevention.

A range of research outputs and publications provide data, analysis, and overviews of crime and criminal justice issues of interest to key stakeholders, the general public and specific clients. Each year the AIC publishes Australian crime: facts and figures, which is a summary of up-to-date Australian information on crime and the criminal justice system, and of trends in key crimes. Through four submissions to inquiries on topics such as the impact of drug abuse on families, and through over 50 presentations at conferences, the organisation of workshops and roundtables, and participation in advisory and expert groups AIC staff have actively disseminated the latest research evidence on crime and criminal justice to policy and practitioner audiences.

During 2006-07 the AIC continued to operate and build its national monitoring programs related to homicide, firearms theft, armed robbery, deaths in custody, drug use by alleged offenders (DUMA), juvenile detention, and police custody. Further funding resulted in an expansion of the firearms work and of DUMA, and the AIC took on the responsibility of annually surveying fraud against Australian Government agencies. New contracts resulted in research projects being undertaken on major and emerging issues. The following section summarises research activity and outputs for the year under key themes:

• violent crime
• property crime
• drugs
• transnational and organised crime
• economic and high tech crime
• the criminal justice system
• capacity building.

Violent crime

Annual reports are produced on each of the monitoring programs. During the year two of these focused on violent crime. The 2004-05 annual report on homicide included information on incidents, victims and offenders for the year, as well as indicating whether there were any changes in trends since the collection's inception in 1989. Similarly, the armed robbery annual report gave a national picture of incidents, location, and offenders. Although classified as a violent crime, armed robbery is also a major property crime and trends across time indicate a downward trend consistent with the pattern for property crime more generally. A paper was released summarising research on what is known about who commits armed robbery and their reasons for doing it. Another paper examined partner violence amongst a sample of alleged offenders detained by police.

Funding from the Office for Women (OfW) enabled the AIC to continue its research on sexual assault against women. In 2006-07 the focus was on sexual assault against women in Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Working collaboratively with sexual assault service providers across the country, the research involved extensive consultations and interviews, with a major report and papers presented to OfW. The overarching aim of the project is to inform the evidence base that underpins the Australian Government's Women's Safety Agenda.

Community attitudes toward violence against women were investigated in a general community survey in Victoria. Commissioned by VicHealth, the survey was undertaken by the AIC, in collaboration with the Social Research Centre. The report on the survey's findings, completed in late 2006, is informing the development and targeting of programs and educational awareness campaigns under VicHealth's broad policy agenda to understand and improve community attitudes to violence against women (see Case study 1).

Several projects undertaken in the ACT related to sexual assault and to family violence. During the year a report was finalised on tracking sexual assault offences in the criminal justice system, along with a report that updated data on family violence incidents. Research was also commissioned by the ACT Government on Indigenous victims of family violence.

Property crime

Additional funding ensured that data were collected on firearms theft in 2006-07 and will continue for at least another three years. Released during the financial year, the report, using 2004-05 data on 1,470 recorded stolen firearms in 668 reported incidents, presented findings in relation to the characteristics of firearms that are commonly stolen, the characteristics and modus operandi of firearms thefts, and on the rate of compliance with safe storage requirements, and the prosecution of noncompliance.

The AIC, in partnership with the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety and with funding from the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, collected and analysed data on deliberately lit bushfires from 18 fire agencies from across Australia. Further research during the year examined recorded data on bushfire offenders, and the provision of programs for juvenile fire-setters.

A major report was completed on the extent and scope of illegal activity in Australia's fishing industry. This project was funded by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Following Australia-wide consultation with key stakeholders, stage 2 of the project involved a literature review and analyses of reported fisheries offences and their outcomes in selected Australian jurisdictions. A national survey of fisheries officers examined officers' perceptions of the extent and nature of criminal activity, and the adequacy of responses.

With funding from the AGD, the AIC undertook a sixmonth consultancy project in 2006 into the different kinds of intellectual property crime occurring in Australia.

Drugs

The largest ongoing survey of alleged offenders in Australia, DUMA collects empirical data on drug use and on self-reported offending among this high risk group. During 2006, 4,555 detainees were interviewed with 70 percent providing a urine sample. The annual report highlighted trends in detected drug use, characteristics of local drug markets and key issues, such as drug dependency, access to treatment, drug related crime, and self-reported alcohol use. As a result of funding received from the Australian Government under the Proceeds of Crime Act, DUMA was able to expand to nine sites in January 2006, with the addition of sites in Melbourne and Darwin for one year. In addition to the 2005 and 2006 annual reports, which provided national and site specific information on drug use and offences, papers were published that used DUMA data related to partner violence and to benzodiazepine use. Another paper based on a national survey of women prisoners, examined factors associated with drug and alcohol dependency amongst this group.

The AIC is taking a lead role, with the National Drug Research Institute, in developing the national amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) strategy for the Department of Health and Ageing. Extensive consultations were undertaken with major stakeholder groups in regional and urban locations across Australia, which will inform the draft strategy and background report. Several other projects were completed that related to the manufacture of ATS and their precursor chemicals. A consultancy report on the remediation of clandestine laboratory sites was provided to the AGD, and two reports on regional issues, focusing on ATS and on the precursor chemical trade were completed and are outlined in the section on transnational and organised crime.

Criminal justice responses to illicit drug use were a major area of activity during 2006-07, with work undertaken on drug courts and police drug diversion, and major reports released on policing issues. The AIC also completed the first stage of a project examining criminal justice responses to Indigenous offenders with substance abuse issues (see Case study 2 for overview of drugs and crime).

Transnational and organised crime

The AIC has worked in collaboration with a number of law enforcement and intelligence agencies within Australia including the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the AGD, Australian Customs Service (ACS), and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). The nature of that collaboration has included the provision of briefings on transnational crime types, the evaluation of crime and trend assessments and presentations and workshops on key issues. In 2006 the AIC worked closely with a number of key stakeholders to inform the development of anticorruption initiatives under the Government's aid program, including the publication of a report that reviewed anti-corruption strategies.

The AIC undertook a review of ATS supply and demand in the Oceania region, based on published material and limited consultations. It also received funding from the Australian Customs Service and the AGD in 2007 to undertake an assessment of the nature and extent of regional knowledge and understanding about the dangers of ATS precursors.

Economic and high tech crime

The AIC has continued its innovative research into economic and high tech crime. Research staff have delivered presentations on a variety of fraud and financial crime topics throughout the year in Australia and overseas. A project funded by the Australian Taxation Office, on serious taxation fraud prosecutions, was completed in 2007. As part of its collaborative research, and in close cooperation with the Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC), the AIC provided reports and analysis for the AHTCC on issues related to fighting high tech crime in Australia. The outcomes of this research were published in a series of papers and high-tech crime briefs, and underpinned various public and in-house presentations. A major body of work was conducted in 2006-07 that examined future directions in high tech crime. Resource material was also being developed for prosecutors and the judiciary on high tech crime, forensic and evidentiary issues.

Funding from the Proceeds of Crime Act is being used to undertake a cybercrime survey of at least 16,000 Australian businesses. The main survey aims to estimate the prevalence and types of computer security incidents businesses experience, as well as the costs and types of risk minimisation technologies used. The pilot survey was conducted in 2006-07 with 1,000 businesses contacted across Australia.

The Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce funded an AIC project to scope the nature of consumer fraud and understand scam methodologies as well as how to assess the scope and impact of consumer fraud. Based on this research, a paper was released providing an overview of consumer scams in Australia.

During 2006-07 the AIC was given the responsibility of surveying another important area of fraud - against Australian Government agencies - on an annual basis. Government departments and statutory agencies are required to report on fraud in their annual report. To collate information to inform a whole of government reporting requirement the Institute has developed an online survey so that participants can more efficiently and effectively complete a questionnaire that seeks information on types and frequency of fraudulent activity, and of prevention measures in place.

Criminal justice responses

The National Deaths in Custody program was set up in response to the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The program reports on annual data and long term trends in relation to the type and cause of death of persons in prison and in police custody. There were 34 deaths in prison custody and 20 in police custody and custodyrelated operations in 2005.

In terms of policing, reports were released during the year based on research funded by the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund (NDLERF). The project on the policing implications of illicit drug use in Indigenous communities involved a survey of police in four jurisdictions. Two reports were released - a major report on the study's findings, and one that outlined a good practice framework for this policing work. The other project funded by NDLERF resulted in a report being released that outlined a performance measurement framework for drug law enforcement in Australia (See Case study 2 for further information).

Another monitoring program - on juvenile detention in Australia - is based on a yearly census of juvenile detainees in every jurisdiction in Australia. It reports on the number, rate, age, gender and Indigenous status of young people under custodial sentence.

The Victorian juvenile justice outcome project commenced in 2006-07 and involves examining the strengths and weaknesses associated with the use of recidivism as the principal measure of juvenile justice outcomes. Funded by the Juvenile Justice Service of the Office for Children in the Victorian Department of Human Services, this project began in January 2007. The first phase involves a longitudinal analysis of 10 years of outcomes for juveniles who have had contact with the juvenile justice system since 1997.

Research was completed in 2006-07 on the reintegration of Indigenous male prisoners into society. The research, commissioned by the state and territory correction agencies, involved the collection and analysis of data on adult male prisoners whose major offence was violent. Recidivism outcomes over a two year period were examined. In addition, interviews and meetings were held with key stakeholders, including prisoners and correctional staff, in four jurisdictions.

In terms of courts, follow up work was undertaken during the year on Queensland's drug courts with a report prepared for the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General. The AIC has also begun a project, funded by Queensland's Attorney-General and Department of Justice, to determine how well the Murri Court is doing in reducing the rates of failure to appear in court, as well as decreasing the reoffending rate and the number of court orders breached by Indigenous offenders.

A project finalised during the year looked at criminal trials that do not commence on the scheduled day. The research provided data on the proportion of trials in this category and the reasons for delays. The findings of the research were distributed throughout the judicial system and received positive feedback (see Case study 3). A consultancy project that reviewed public attitudes toward Commonwealth criminal penalties and whether they are consistent with community expectations was completed during the year for the AGD.

Capacity building

During 2006-07, the AIC continued to help key stakeholders build capacity to prevent and reduce crime. In addition to several studies already mentioned in the section on criminal justice responses, specific program reviews included an evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the WA Government's Responsible Parenting Initiative.

Capacity building initiatives ranged from the establishment of collaborative research and development arrangements with partner organisations to formal workshop and conference presentations. In 2006-07 the AIC continued its collaborative research and development project with the WA Office of Crime Prevention. The project is designed to develop processes for better linking crime prevention and community safety research to strategic policy, program implementation and evaluation functions, as well as delivering professional development opportunities for both agencies.

Collaborative capacity building underpins a three year agreement with the AGD, to assist with the National Community Crime Prevention Programme (NCCPP). The focus is on improving the quality of project design, evaluation and monitoring of local community initiatives. During the year the AIC was involved in conducting community workshops, drafting tip sheets on aspects of crime prevention and community safety, and providing input into evaluative frameworks and assessment of locally based proposals. The AIC was also commissioned during the year to undertake a review of NCCPP and consultations commenced towards the end of the financial year.

AFP funding enabled the AIC to undertake research and produce a report on missing persons in Australia, identifying at risk groups and best practice in relation to prevention, early intervention support and referral. It also looked at how a more networked approach to policy and practice can be achieved and recommended future priorities for research.

During 2006-07, the Institute also continued to provide assistance to the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) on several fronts, including assessment of a range of community and business crime and justice surveys in Papua New Guinea, and on a project proposal for the southeast Asian region. The AIC also undertook some shortterm consultancy work for several key stakeholders, such as AGD and ACS.

Longer term impacts

Table 1 shows outputs and outcomes for projects current in 2006-07. It can be difficult for a research agency to identify outcomes within the same year as the research was undertaken, as it sometimes takes several years for its impact to be apparent. The value of research data is not only in the initial study. Often the data may be reanalysed to answer a different question or initial analyses may be pooled into a larger meta-analysis that enables a more authoritative conclusion to be drawn about the efficacy of a particular intervention or phenomenon. Monitoring trends, and hence our capacity to model future outcomes and impacts, requires significant investment in long term data collection systems. Such modelling cannot occur until the collections have been established.

The Institute reviews client satisfaction at the end of each project and monitors public and media interest in its work. We note references in the media and the literature to our work and publications, and keep a watching brief on legislative reforms. However it can be difficult to discern if a particular legislative change was the direct result of one particular piece of research. More often than not it results from a culmination of research and public concern about a particular matter.

An example of AIC work that has had a known direct impact on legislative reform was a study on drinking spiking undertaken in 2005. This work led to SCAG agreeing to the development of a section of the Model Criminal Code to cover this offence. Queensland and South Australia have subsequently introduced legislation in this area.

Another example of longer term impact is the selection in 2007 of a speech by Adam Graycar, Kiah McGregor and Toni Makkai in 2001 on drugs and law enforcement in the International Harm Reduction Association's top 50 publications on policing of drug use.

Maintaining the quality of the Institute's collection has been shown to have direct benefits. An example is the Institute's homicide monitoring program which was seen to have probative value in the R v Dupas [2004] VSC 253 (21 July 2004) case.

Publishing

The Institute meets the Minister's expectations on the dissemination of research findings through a variety of approaches, including presentations, conferences and, most significantly, publications. The AIC has a number of publication series, each in a different format, from the fortnightly, single page Crime facts info sheets to the longer, in-depth Research and public policy series. The goal of these activities is to ensure that the research findings produced by AIC researchers are disseminated to key stakeholders and the public in the most efficient and effective fashion.

During the 2006-07 financial year, the AIC continued to produce quality relevant publications in a timely fashion including:

• Australian crime: facts and figures 2006
• 27 reports
• 50 fact sheets
• 3 newsletters
• the 2005-06 annual reports of the AIC and the CRC.

The AIC also produces reports to clients on a consulting basis. A full list of AIC publications is provided in Appendix 1. Articles and papers by staff in non-AIC publications are listed in Appendix 2.

Print versions of AIC publications are available for sale from the AIC. Electronic versions of all publications are available on the website at http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/

Review and publication process

All publications are subject to a rigorous refereeing process before they are accepted for publication. Drafts are reviewed by AIC staff including the Director and senior analysts. Publications are also subject to external review. All publications are also edited to conform to the AIC publishing style guide. The AIC has been accepted by the Department of Education, Science and Training as an accredited publisher for purposes of university funding under the higher education research data collection requirements. This accreditation covers the peer reviewed, and commercially published Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice and Research and public policy series.

For many years, AIC reports have been distributed in north America by Criminal Justice Press. With changes in publishing, including online full text availability and credit card purchases, the volume of business transacted decreased and the arrangement ceased early in 2007. The Institute has appreciated its warm relationship with Criminal Justice Press over the years.

Dissemination and promotion of AIC work

The AIC continues to hold relevant conferences, occasional seminars and roundtables. These are attended by groups including researchers, law enforcement agencies, policy makers and practitioners.

In addition to the more structured roundtables and conferences, the Director and staff have disseminated AIC work in the form of presentations to meetings of criminal justice practitioners, government agencies, academics, politicians and other interested parties. These presentations are listed in Appendix 3.

AIC material is also disseminated through the AIC's email alerting service. Subscribers to this service receive all fact sheets and notifications of any new AIC releases or events.

Conferences

Communities in action for crime prevention: International Centre for the Prevention of Crime Sixth Annual Colloquium. The 6th annual colloquium of the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC) was held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra from 14-15 September 2006. The colloquium was jointly organised by the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime, the Community Safety and Justice Branch of the AGD and the AIC. It drew together practitioners, professionals and academics involved in the development of community programs aimed at reducing crime.

Keynote speakers included Dr Sue Gordon AM, Chair of the National Indigenous Council, Emeritus Professor W.G. (Kit) Carson, an Honorary Professorial Research Fellow of the University of Melbourne and Professor Emeritus at La Trobe university and Scott Rankin, Director of Big hART. AIC staff gave presentations and acted as rapporteurs.

The AIC also ran its first one-day conference in 2006.

Family violence, drug and alcohol use in remote communities, 18 August 2006, Darwin. The conference was jointly hosted by the Department of Justice of the Northern Territory and attracted over 100 participants. The conference was a trial in response to recommendations in the communications review that one-day conferences be held in major centres away from Canberra to reduce costs and increase accessibility to organisations distant from southeastern Australia. The conference was co-sponsored by the Northern Territory Government and was considered highly effective by participants. This satisfactory outcome, combined with positive feedback, means one day conferences are likely to be held again.

Papers from these conferences are on the AIC's website at http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences

Roundtable discussions

Roundtable discussions are workshops designed to facilitate exploration of contemporary issues related to public policy by experts and stakeholders. The AIC organises these discussions to develop and maintain a common and current knowledge base relating to significant issues and to encourage strategic information sharing between policy and program agencies and practitioners.

Nine roundtables were held this financial year.

Anti-corruption, 26 July 2006. The AIC hosted this roundtable with AusAID following the release of the white paper on Australian aid. The roundtable discussed law and justice initiatives, monitoring and evaluation.

Trafficking, 28 July 2006. The AIC hosted this roundtable with OfW to identify research methodologies to investigate how to respond to potential cases in Australia of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Clandestine laboratories, 11 July, 18 July, 25 July 2006. Discussions focused on the steps required to develop and implement a formal remediation process, and on associated legal and resources implications.

NCCPP workshop, 13 September 2006. This roundtable, held with the AGD, was designed to build capacity among representatives of community crime prevention projects. The workshop was held in conjunction with the ICPC colloquium.

Drug diversion, 18 October 2006. This roundtable, hosted with the Department of Health and Ageing, discussed the national collection of data on police diversion of people apprehended for drugs offences and related data access issues.

Drug Use Monitoring in Australia technical meeting, 23-24 November 2006. The annual technical workshop decided on data collection priorities for the coming year and heard presentations on key issues.

Missing persons, 12 December 2006. The roundtable identified key issues and the way forward for the project's stakeholders.

National police custody, 23 April 2007. Held with state and territory police agencies, the roundtable discussed data variables, design and implementation of the 2007 survey of persons held in police custody.

Sex offender treatment, 8 May 2007. State/territory and New Zealand corrections officers investigated content and good practice in the delivery of sex offender treatment programs in prisons.

Seminars

Occasional seminars are held at the Institute on a variety of topics. Speakers are generally visiting Canberra and are invited to make a short presentation to AIC staff and invited participants on their areas of expertise. Appendix 4 lists public seminars hosted by the AIC this financial year. Details of AIC seminars can be found at http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/occasional. The AIC also held a number of in-house seminars over the past 12 months where staff presented findings from their research or papers to be delivered to other meetings.

Media liaison

The AIC continues to be consulted on a wide range of criminological issues by the media. This contact involves the media seeking comment on AIC work, other agencies' work and general background information and statistics on crime within Australia. Table 2 shows the extent of this contact.

Table 2: Media liason, 2006-07

Number of media requests	255
Number of media interviews	56
Number of AIC media releases	7
Number of releases of AIC products by the Minister/other Ministers	4

The AIC issued five media releases during the year, on armed robberies, the health of post-release prisoners, crime against ethnic business, group violence, and homicide. Copies of all media releases are on the AIC's website at http://www.aic.gov.au/media

The main topic areas where the AIC was mentioned in the media were drugs and crime, firearms, violence, cybercrime, homicide, arson and fraud. Although the drink spiking project was completed last financial year, it was still a popular topic for media mentions. For the first time, there was a noticeable use of AIC research in blogs.

Parliament

The AIC presented submissions to, and appeared before, three Commonwealth Parliamentary inquiries this year:

• Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs inquiry into older people and the law
• House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services inquiry into the impact of illicit drug use on families
• Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission inquiry into the future impact of serious and organised crime on Australian society.

The AIC was mentioned substantively 11 times in Parliament during the year. The work mentioned was on firearms, bushfire arson, costs of crime, cybercrime, reporting to police and violence against women.

The AIC also made a submission to the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission inquiry into policing in Indigenous communities.

Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards

The annual Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards are designed to reward good practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crimes in Australia, to encourage public initiatives and to assist governments identify and develop practical projects that will reduce violence and other types of crime in the community. The annual awards are sponsored by the Commonwealth Heads of Government and the APMC. They include monetary awards totalling $130,000.

The 2006 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards were presented to the winners by Senator the Honourable Chris Ellison, Minister for Justice and Customs, on Thursday 30 November 2006. There were four national community award winners and two national police award winners.

Community award winners

Chance on Main (Tasmania)

This is an intervention program for young people aged 14-19 who are at risk of being involved in criminal or antisocial activities, or dropping out of school or training, or becoming homeless and disconnected from their families. The methods used are:

• mentoring by high profile community and sporting personalities, intensive individual support and counselling
• providing support to the families of young people involved in the program and hands-on activity programs on and off site, (for example, metal work and computer training).

This model is unique in Tasmania. The young people involved are often seen as 'difficult' by mainstream service providers and a concern for police, education and health personnel. The need for an early intervention program for this target group was identified from extensive consultation over five years, involving relevant service providers, surveys of the Glenorchy community and in-depth consultation with young people.

Gove Peninsula Community Patrol (Northern Territory)

The Gove Peninsula Community Patrol provides a service across all inhabited areas located on the Gove Peninsula. These patrols work closely with other support agencies in assisting community members needing advice or information, or who have placed themselves in a situation where they may be at risk. The patrol is staffed by Yolgnu women seeking to reduce the impact of alcohol abuse on the individual and the community. They encourage responsible drinking, settle drunken conflicts and take intoxicated people home or away from dangerous areas such as roadsides. It is an extremely difficult job requiring committed and passionate workers.

Unlike major urban centres of the Northern Territory, the Yolgnu people are still very attached to traditional law and a traditional way of life. The Yolgnu women have a very good understanding of people who are, in general, close relatives that are under the influence of alcohol and other drugs. As close relatives they are able, in most cases, to deal with situations that arise.

Make It Work: Employment and Mentoring Program (Victoria)

Make It Work is a support program for offenders, most of whom are bailees of the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. The program provides employment and vocational training assistance, help with other support needs through referrals and a mentoring program to an average of 100 people each year. All assistance aims to reduce recidivism. A three year evaluation of Make It Work conducted by Deakin University reveals the program has performed impressively compared to other similar national and international programs. The program addresses educational and vocational shortfalls faced by offenders in re-entry into the community by preparing prisoners to re-enter the work force, actively marketing this client group to employers and providing post placement support. Work preparation training and other career development training or courses are provided through linkage to an established network of service providers and a trained volunteer community mentor, who assists the client with integrating with their community.

Residential Beef Cattle Production Training Program (Northern Territory)

The training program includes competency units in a number of areas related to beef cattle production. The program runs for four weeks at the Juno Horse Centre in a residential stock camp setting, with one week at the NT Rural College. It is funded by the Commonwealth and Northern Territory Governments as well as the NT Rural College and Youth Development Unit.

The program aims to engage participants in gainful employment or further training. The long term aims are that program graduates can help decrease antisocial and offending behaviour by acting as role models for the community.

Police award winners

Homelands Partnership (Queensland)

This project is concerned with homelessness in the central business district of Cairns and related issues of public drunkenness, antisocial behaviour and public fears about crime. An agreement with local liquor stores was made not to sell wine casks before 4pm to reduce public drunkenness. Outstanding fines were also allowed to be paid in instalments in order to reduce crimes such as stealing and begging.

Northern Territory Police Violent Crime Reduction Strategy (Northern Territory)

This strategy aims to reduce domestic violence by improving police response times to domestic violence calls, education and early intervention. Targeting offenders early in their cycle of offending, perpetrators' behaviours are monitored and action taken before violence occurs. Police action is measured each quarter through operational performance review processes. Marketing of the strategies to the Northern Territory community has been integral to its success.

Communications review

The AIC commissioned a review of its communication with stakeholders and clients in January 2006. The review found that the Institute was highly regarded for the quality and independence of its work. It was also noted that the Institute was responsive to both emerging trends and client needs and was influential at all levels of government. However the review found that the agency needed to develop a more effective communication strategy beyond its key stakeholders including a review of its publications.

The information gathered by this report and its recommendations fed into a second consultancy on the public affairs function presented in June 2007. This report noted that while a range of AIC activity had grown there had not been a corresponding growth in communication support functions. The strategy outlined in this report will be actioned during the coming financial year.

Internships

Summer interns are selected from students at Australian universities in their last or second last year of study. Internships are intended to provide the students with a working knowledge of the AIC. This year, the AIC appointed seven interns, who worked on projects related to drug diversion, juvenile justice issues in Victoria, NARMP, the National Deaths in Custody program, the precursor chemical trade in Oceania and the preparation of Crime facts info and AICrime reduction matters fact sheets. Through the Australian National Internships Program, a student from the Australian National University was hosted and supervised at the AIC to work on a bushfire arson topic in the second half of 2006.

Output 1.2: Library, information services to support policy advice and publications

AIC website

The Institute's website (http://www.aic.gov.au) is the principal vehicle for the Institute to meet the Minister's expectation of wide dissemination of the results of AIC 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.

Over the past financial year the website has been used more interactively to support the research program. A major initiative this financial year was the launch in November of the Indigenous justice clearinghouse. Information Services worked closely with the NSW Attorney General's Department on this project, which provides a web-based resource for researchers, policy makers and practitioners. For more information see Case study 4.

A Hot Topics section was introduced on the website. The topics gather together key information and resources on a topic of current interest with the aim of anticipating requests to the Institute and guide web visitors to the most important material. Topics this year have included bushfire arson, homicide, the Indigenous Justice Taskforce, deaths in custody, Schoolies Week and White Ribbon Day.

Use of the website

During the 2006-07 financial year, there was an average of 28,928 successful requests for pages per day from external search engines, with a high of 38,747 occurring in May. The months with highest usage coincide with the end of the Australian and northern hemisphere academic years. The majority of requests (62%) are for AIC publications. The most requested AIC publication during the year was Australian crime: facts and figures.

External searching, described above, leads people to the website. Searching within the site uses the website's search engine, Funnelback. Use fluctuates throughout the year, with an average of 17,400 successful queries per month.

Other websites

A secure AIC website was set up towards the end of the financial year. Using Verisign authentication, this will enable encrypted communication for four web initiatives for AIC stakeholders and for future research surveys, as required.

To improve the operating efficiency of the AIC Board and the CRC, meeting papers and minutes are now posted to a closed website. This has considerably reduced the printing and distribution overheads for these meetings.

Information Services also maintains a protected section on the website for DUMA stakeholders. More detailed analyses of DUMA data than appear in the published report are posted to this site, where contributors also have access to their own data. In the new year, a web analyser will be made available on this closed site to enable stakeholders to undertake their own analysis.

A secure site was established during the year for NARMP to exchange data and communicate with stakeholders across Australia.

The annual Fraud Against the Australian Government survey has been placed on its own website.

On a fee-for-service basis, the Institute has taken over, redesigned and now maintains the website of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology.

The Institute maintained a website for the Australasian Police Multicultural Advisory Bureau for several years. With the abolition of the Bureau in April 2007, the website was archived with the National Library of Australia's Pandora project.

Intranet

Information Services continues to develop the intranet as the main knowledge sharing and development vehicle for the Institute, particularly for the uniform promulgation of policies, procedures and guidelines and for information about the Institute's work to meet its governance commitments to the Minister. The Director's instructions are the first point of reference for Institute policies and they refer to other guidelines and procedures, along with delegations. All areas continue to develop procedures and guidelines and to make them available via the intranet. Linkages between the Institute's document management system and the intranet ensure that staff have the current version of these documents at their fingertips.

In the past year there has been an emphasis on supporting internal committees, with the online provision of relevant information and minutes to committee members. Following the internal audit report on research documentation, particular efforts have been made to ensure that project documentation is up-to-date and available to all staff on the intranet.

A Director's update has been added to the intranet, and the new section with information about the forthcoming building refurbishment is a keenly read area.

Major work was undertaken during the year to upgrade the intranet interface to the library database, with improved displays of records and particularly of linked records and documents.

JV Barry Library services

Client services

Several important reference databases were added to the Institute's resources during the year. Under a special agreement with Ebsco, one of the world's major online and full text service providers, all issues of the AIC's Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice series have been loaded to its SocIndex database, vastly expanding the discovery opportunities for the Institute's main publications. The agreement includes a reduced price subscription to the database, to which all AIC staff have access. The extended access this brings to a range of social sciences literature, many articles in full text, improves the efficiency of the discovery and delivery aspects of literature searches, whether conducted by researchers themselves or library staff on their behalf.

Other new databases include the Australian databases, Attorney-General's Information Service (AGIS) and the AFP Database (AFPD). Although not full text services, these add considerably to our ability to find and deliver relevant information to researchers. We have also subscribed to Thomson Law Book and LexisNexis, as work with legislation and cases is expected to increase with new project work into the future.

Library staff continued to work in collaboration with Institute researchers to ensure their work reflects current, reliable and relevant information available in the public domain. They do this by providing both literature searching and current awareness services. Library staff take an active interest in research projects so that newly published material can be brought to the attention of individual researchers. The library also undertakes tailored literature searches and other reference work to support individual research projects.

Current awareness alerts continue to be produced on crime prevention, cybercrime, drugs, evaluation, Indigenous justice, juvenile justice, and people trafficking and smuggling. Although produced primarily for agency staff, these alerts are also available to stakeholders, as part of the Minister's expectation that the Institute will distribute information widely. A new alert, on recidivism, was introduced during the year.

Information Services contributes to two of the Institute's monitoring programs, Deaths in Custody and NHMP, and to cybercrime, bushfire arson and fraud against the Australian Government projects by finding and storing news articles on these topics. In addition it maintains files of newspaper articles about the Institute so that our media impact can be monitored. This was reported in the Public Affairs section of this report.

Major reference work was undertaken during the year to support research projects on cybercrime, sex trafficking, ATS, money laundering, intellectual property, tax compliance, drugs and crime, sexual violence reporting in culturally and linguistically diverse and Indigenous communities, diversion of Indigenous offenders, clandestine drug laboratories, anti-corruption, firearms, arson, fraud, crime in the fishing industry, recidivism, deaths in police custody, prison populations, airport security, drug driving, forensics, women in policing and missing persons.

CINCH database

The CINCH bibliographic database is compiled and maintained by Information Services. The database is one of the family of index databases for which access is provided by Informit (see http://informit.com.au for more information). CINCH aims to include all new material about crime and criminal justice in Australasia - books, reports, journal articles, websites, conference proceedings and papers - with high quality subject indexing and abstracts. CINCH records are also available in the JV Barry Library's catalogue on the Institute website.

At the end of June 2007, the database contained 54,049 records. During the year 1,640 records were added, compared with 1,607 records for the previous year. The contractor for indexing for the CINCH database is Informed Sources Pty Ltd.

As Informit has improved its database updating and reporting processes, a number of older records have been referred back to the AIC for upgrading. This improves the quality of the database on our website as well.

Datasets

The Institute acquires or creates datasets for many of its research projects, and these are all captured and made available to Institute staff using the integrated library management system. The data collected can be leveraged to deliver other client data services where appropriate, and will be used for further analysis in future research projects.

Collection

During the year 929 monographs were acquired in print or electronic format. Of these, 734 were gratis or exchange items and 195 were purchased. In the previous year, 729 monographs were received; 513 being gratis or exchange items and 216 purchased. Staff borrowed 871 books, reports and journal issues, compared with 759 the previous year.

The library's database now contains several material types - research projects, datasets, policies, procedures and even portable ICT equipment. The integrated library management system is used for records in the Institute's knowledge base and provides links to it through the intranet.

The Institute has continued to make a cataloguing contribution to the National Library service, Libraries Australia. Libraries Australia is an internet based service that plays an essential part in the operation of hundreds of Australian libraries, facilitates the creation and sharing of quality cataloguing data for library materials, acts as the central resource in an efficient interlibrary loans service and supports the provision of reference services. It provides access to the national database of material held in Australian libraries, known as the national bibliographic database.

The Institute continues to send a monthly batch of electronic records to Libraries Australia for addition. These records are then either matched to existing records and a holding record added, or a new catalogue entry is created. This year the JV Barry Library contributed 547 cataloguing records to Libraries Australia. Of these, 345 were original cataloguing, indicating that, although our collection is not large, the Institute continues to house a valuable and uncommon resource. The remaining 202 items were additions of our holdings to existing records.

Interlibrary loans

The library provides loans, interlibrary loans and document delivery services founded on partnerships and interlibrary cooperation. These activities enable the library to deliver publications, documents and information to AIC staff that are not available in the Institute's own collection. The JV Barry Library continues to be a net lender in these schemes, indicating the value of the library's collection to the nation. The library continues to actively support cooperative interlibrary lending schemes and utilises the National Library of Australia's Libraries Australia document delivery service for the rest of its interlibrary loans work. Although full text fee for service databases are increasingly used for recent journal articles, there has not been an appreciable decrease in the number of articles requested by AIC staff or external libraries.

During the year the library received 150 journal articles and 91 books on interlibrary loan for researchers and made 685 articles and 277 books available on interlibrary loan. The number of articles acquired on interlibrary loan for AIC researchers is rising, reflecting increased use of all library services and the wider range of subjects being researched. An example is fisheries, an area in which the library has limited holdings.

Contributions and networks

Information Services also contributes news to the Crimnet list of criminal justice researchers, practitioners and policy makers about new AIC reports and activities and important news from Australia and overseas. Other discussion lists to which contributions are made cover Indigenous affairs, Australian policy, and international crime prevention.

The Institute is an active member of the World Criminal Justice Libraries Network. The Institute is a member of the planning committee for the next meeting of the Network, in 2008.

The Institute continues to build relationships with the emergency management sector through involvement with the Australian Libraries in Emergency Services (ALIES) group and is also a member of the planning committee for its meeting in 2007. This group works closely with the Australian Disasters Information Network (AusDIN) group, coordinated by the AGD. An initiative of the ALIES network, in which the Institute is involved, is the development of a purchasing consortium for online services. If successful, this will enable us to subscribe to some database services which are otherwise too expensive.

Cooperative interlibrary loan networks to which the library belongs include ALIES, Gratisnet (health libraries), GLASS (social sciences libraries) and the group of government criminal justice agency libraries in Australia.

The JV Barry Library continued to assist the Papua New Guinea Attorney-General's Department by identifying criminal justice and criminological material in Australia to build and supplement the existing collection in the Department's library in Papua New Guinea. The PNG library nominates material it would like to receive and the JV Barry Library packs and ships this to PNG up to three times each year.

Financial performance

Table 3: Total resources for Outcome 1 ($'000)

	2006-07 budget forecast a	2006-07 actual b	2007-08 budget estimate c
a 2007-08 Portfolio Budget Statements
b Audited 2006-07 financial statements
c 2007-08 Portfolio Budget Statements
Revenue from Government
Outcome 1 - To inform government of activities which aim to promote justice and reduce crime
Output 1.1 - Policy advice and publications	4,769	4,769	6,603
Output 1.2 - Library, information and reference services to support policy advice and publications	705	705	647
Total revenue from Government contributing to price of departmental outputs	5,329	5,329	7,250
Revenue from other sources
Outcome 1 - To inform government of activities which aim to promote justice and reduce crime
Output 1.1 - Policy advice and publications	2,805	3,227	1,226
Output 1.2 - Library, information and reference services to support policy advice and publications	44	34	24
Total revenue from other sources	2,849	3,261	1,250
Total revenue from departmental outputs	5,329	5,329	7,250
(Total revenues from government and from other sources)	8,178	8,590	8,500
Price of departmental outputs
Outcome 1 - To inform government of activities which aim to promote justice and reduce crime
Output 1.1 - Policy advice and publications	7,473	7,852	6,598
Output 1.2 - Library, information and reference services to support policy advice and publications	705	705	647
Total price of departmental outputs	8,178	8,557	8,495
Total estimated resourcing for Outcome 1 (Total price of outputs and administered appropriations)	8,178	8,557	8,495
Average staffing level (number)	50	50	53

Annual report 2006/07

• Download PDF (4.9MB)

Contents

Part 1: Australian Institute of Criminology

• Letter of transmittal (PDF 66kB)
• Director's certificate of compliance (PDF 41kB)
• The year in review
• Agency overview
• Report on performance
• Accountability and management
• AIC appendixes
• AIC financial statements (PDF 2.3MB)

Part 2: Criminology Research Council

• Letter of transmittal (PDF 67kB)
• CRC annual report
• CRC financial statements (PDF 1.9MB)