Annual reports

Research projects

published in:
25th Annual Report of the Criminology Research Council, 1997
ISSN 0311-4481
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 1997

New Projects Funded

The Council considered thirty-four grant applications during the year, six of which were approved.

Particulars of research grants awarded by the Council during the year are as follows:

1. Evaluation of the Qld Security Providers Act 1993 Dr Timothy Prenzler, Dr Hennessey Hayes and Dr Richard Wortley, Griffith University (4/96-7). At its meeting of 24 July 1996 the Council made a grant of $5237 for this project.
   This project will obtain the views of security managers, night club managers and senior police on the development, content and impact of the Queensland Security Providers Act 1993 in terms of the security industry's self-identified need for greater accountability and professionalism. The survey will solicit suggestions on specific changes required to improve the legislation and its enforcement. Information obtained on the development and enforcement of the Act will be analysed in terms of regulatory theory. The data will also be used to develop further research projects on cross-jurisdictional comparisons of security regulation, and regulation of the behaviour of crowd controllers.
2. Peer Networks and other influences on Aboriginal Juvenile Offending Ms R. Lincoln, Mr M. Lynch and Ms E. Ogilvie, Bond University (18/96-7). At its meeting of 28 November 1996 the Council made a grant of $15 721 towards this project.
   The study is based on the premise that the justice system and offending do not necessarily operate in the same way for Aboriginal people as for non-Aboriginal. Most of the research questions will focus on "impacting" the antecedents to offending and non-offending for Aboriginal youth. Data for the study will be derived from a larger research program (Sibling Study) that examines determinants of juvenile delinquency focusing on attitudinal factors, community ecology factors and the interaction between them by using discrete subsamples and sibling pairs.

3. Compare and assess the benefits of treatment programs for male child sexual offenders in correctional services against the costs of implementing such programs Professor F. Briggs, Dr M. Shanahan, Ms R. Nayda and Mr D. Donato, University of South Australia (23/96-7). At its meeting of 28 November 1996 the Council made a grant of $21 575 for this project.
   The objective of this research project is to estimate the economic costs to society in South Australia of not having male, child sex offender programs in a correctional centre. The costs of "on treatment" are compared with the costs of implementing such programs in order to evaluate their relative benefits to society.

   Range estimates under alternative assumptions will be used to compare the costs of "doing nothing" with the costs of implementing sex offender treatment programs.

4. Aboriginal Youth Suicide: Towards a Model of Explanation and Alleviation Professor Colin Tatz, Macquarie University (25/96-7). At its meeting of 11 April 1997 the Council made a grant of $35 864 for this project.
   This research will develop a model for explanation and alleviation of youth suicidal (or violent) behaviour in Aboriginal communities by:

   • examining regional, social, historical suicide patterns;
   • exploring "life" rather than "death" orientation in developing interventions;
   • locating earlier rather than later indicators of self-destruction;
   • locating antecedent and present social, legal, political factors impinging on today's Aboriginal youth; and
   • assessing other raisons d'etre for Aboriginal youth, such as involvement in competitive, organised sport.
5. The Effectiveness of Legal Protection in Prevention of Domestic Violence in the lives of young Australian Women Professor Annette Dobson, The University of Newcastle (30/96-7). At its meeting of 11 April 1997 the Council made a grant of $37 050 for this project.
   The main aim of the study is to inform policy and practice on the effectiveness of legal protection and other factors in preventing repeated partner violence in young women's lives (with legal protection categorised by type - arrest, report to police, court protection order). The research is a longitudinal study of a large national sample of young Australian women reporting partner violence. One of the particular strengths of this study is that the design includes a comparison group of women without protection orders or other legal or police assistance. Data will be drawn from the Women's Health Australia (WHA) survey.

6. The Effectiveness of Criminal Sanctions: A Natural Experiment Dr David Tait, The University of Melbourne (33/96-7). At its meeting of 11 April 1997 the Council made a grant of $30 289 for this project. Commencement of the project depends on confirmation of the availability of supplementary funding from another source.
   It is proposed that this study will examine the effectiveness of sanctions in limiting future offending using data from the Victorian Magistrates' Court. The study will measure:

   • the impact of different penalties on subsequent re-offending;
   • the incapacitation effect of imprisonment imposed by magistrates; and
   • the effect on future court workload of different penalties.

Consultancy: Fear of Crime

During the year, the Council also established a research consultancy on the topic of fear of crime. Conducted in partnership with the National Campaign Against Violence and Crime and the National Anti-Crime Strategy, the total cost of the consultancy is $92 000.

The purpose of the consultancy is to:

• undertake an audit of the fear of crime literature and of crime prevention projects that address the fear of crime, in order to evaluate the merits of existing theoretical and methodological approaches, and of crime prevention practices in the field;
• conduct research to explore the ways in which people conceptualise and manage fear, especially in relation to the risk of becoming a victim of crime; and
• develop strategies for managing and reducing fear of crime.

The consultancy is due for completion in October 1997, and it is anticipated that the results of the research will be used by the National Campaign Against Violence and Crime and the National Anti-Crime Strategy to develop a crime prevention pilot study.

Reports Received of Completed Research 1996-97

The Council received 6 reports of completed research projects during the year. Summaries of these reports are given below. The reference in brackets at the end of a title or an entry is the Dewey decimal classification number within the collection of the J.V. Barry Library.

1. An Evaluation of the Impact of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) and the Corrections (Remissions) Act 1991 (Vic) upon Sentencing Practices & Custodial Populations Professor Arie Freiberg, Mr Stuart Ross and Dr David Tait, Department of Criminology, The University of Melbourne (15/92) (1996) (345.077209945 f FRE).
   The report of this project is entitled "Change and Stability in Sentencing: A Victorian Study" which examined the impact of the changes brought about by the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) and the Sentencing (Amendment) Act 1993 (Vic) upon:

   • the number and length of prison sentences;
   • the relationship between custodial and non-custodial sanctions; and
   • the use of intermediate sanction.

   The study examined trends in sentencing patterns in both higher and lower courts over a 120-year period, but focused upon the decade prior to the new legislation and the four years after the 1991 Act.

   It found that Victoria's prison population remained relatively stable for approximately 15 months after the introduction of "truth in sentencing" laws, increased by approximately 250 persons in a very short period thereafter, and then stabilised over the following 18 months. However, this apparent stability in prison population masked a complex series of changes, some of which had been in train prior to the legislation, some of which were due to legislative change and some of which can be attributed to changes in the socio-legal culture.

   The study predicts that the Victorian prison population will rise slowly as the number of long-term prisoners accumulates and the 1991 and 1993 reforms take effect. The size of the prison population will depend not only upon the amount of crime and the number of convictions, but upon judicial responses to what appears to be a hardening of community attitudes to sentencing practices.

2. An Action-Research of a Pilot Domestic Violence Community Intervention Project, Stage One - A Case StudyAssociate Professor Denis Ladbrook and Ms Jennifer Gardiner, School of Social Work, Curtin University (33/92-3) (1996) (362.82926099411 f GAR).

   The report of this project is entitled "From Private to Public: Creating a Domestic Violence Community Intervention Project".

   The action research described in the report involved three objectives:

   • To document the process involved in the first stage of the formation of a pilot coordinated criminal justice focussed inter-agency response to domestic violence to the point at which formally adopted written coordinated inter-agency policies and procedures are ready to be implemented;
   • to analyse the above processes to highlight positive strategies and issues or difficulties which arose in the project for the purpose of facilitating the adoption of a similar model in other communities; and
   • to develop methods for ongoing monitoring of the effectiveness of community intervention projects in reducing violence to women.

   The interagency project that was the focus of the action research was the Armadale Domestic Violence Intervention Project (ADVIP), in Western Australia.

   The research found that a major dilemma concerned the degree to which the Duluth model can be transferred into other communities as a total package. Local conditions and traditions vary so that the model needs to be contextually adapted. To gain broad community support and collective ownership, the sensitivities of the cooperating agencies need to be worked with, without diluting the strong framework of principles and priorities. However, it was argued that the Duluth model is an "idea whose time has come".

   To be sustainable over the long term, an intervention project of this type cannot remain solely the province of a committed band of local enthusiasts. Attention was therefore given to ways of building a broader coalition of support for the intervention process within government, within the multiple levels of the cooperating agencies and in the wider community, including the Aboriginal community. Government policy was found to be of crucial significance.

   ADVIP has had considerable influence on Western Australian policy in responding to domestic violence. For example, the WA Government has nominated interagency cooperation as its policy for combating domestic violence in that State. A Domestic Violence Prevention Unit has now been established to assist regions of Western Australia to develop effective inter-agency responses.

3. Police Firearms Policy in Australia: An Overview Associate Professor Rick Sarre, School of Law, University of South Australia (10/94-5) (1996) (363.2320994 fp SAR).

   The report of this project is entitled "Firearms Carriage by Police in Australia".

   In the last two decades there have been major shifts in the firearms policies of Australia's eight police jurisdictions. This report endeavours to provide better and further particulars of Australian police firearm carriage policies. This report has surveyed all jurisdictions and provides a current, public, descriptive statement of all Australian policies on police firearm carriage for the first time since 1985. Moreover, it provides a commentary and analysis of the events in the past two years in Victoria including Project Beacon and the effect that it has had on at least two other jurisdictions. This report provides a brief history of police firearms carriage policies in each State and Territory, including the Australian Federal Police, with a more critical gaze being cast over the South Australian parliamentary experience. Finally, this report places the various police firearms policies in the context of the pertinent recommendations of the report of the Australian National Committee on Violence in 1990.

4. Criminal Victimisation: The Influence of Interpersonal Competence on Personal Vulnerability Dr Ted Nettelbeck and Dr Carlene Wilson, Dept of Psychology, The University of Adelaide (16/94-5) (1996) (362.88 f NET).

   The general objective of this project was to validate a relationship between personal vulnerability to criminal victimisation and specific interpersonal competencies. This aim was derived from earlier research which found that people with an intellectual disability were not only disproportionately at risk of victimisation but also that the rate of victimisation among this group was dependent on characteristics of the victims that reflected their interpersonal competence.

   This research found that people with an intellectual disability display levels of interpersonal competence that are significantly lower than those found for normal children at the same mental age. In one sense this is an optimistic finding, in so far as it attests to the sound development of sensible social competence in children by this age. However, the poorer performance of persons with an intellectual disability is therefore not the consequence of developmental delay but constitutes an integral aspect of the intellectual disability. In other words, their interpersonal skills lag significantly behind what would be predicted by their IQ scores. Among people with an intellectual disability, however, IQ does not predict victimisation and the critical aspect of lower interpersonal competence which can precipitate victimisation is defined in terms of uncontrolled antisocial, maladaptive behaviours. Victims show high levels of hostility and aggression when confronted with potentially threatening situations, that non victims do not show.

   A clear policy implication from this work is that future planning about how best to deal with the vulnerability for victimisation of people with an intellectual disability requires consideration of the contribution of victim variables as well as characteristics of offenders.

5. The Role of Masculinity and Male Honour in Gay Killings and Murder Trial Outcomes Dr Stephen Tomsen, Dept of Sociology, The University of Newcastle (19/94-5) (1996) (364.1520866409944 fp TOM).

   The report of this project is entitled "Gay Killings in New South Wales: Victimisation and the Legal Response".

   There has been a recent activist, official and media focus on killings of gay men in NSW and the outcome of related criminal trials. However, this form of killing is more widespread than is generally thought and it is not a new type of crime. A survey of murder and manslaughter records for New South Wales since 1980 conducted as part of this research, reveals that at least 74 homicides which could reasonably be termed as gay killings have occurred in that period.

   Analysis of court records for the 31 gay-hate killings recorded by the NSW Police Service since 1986 suggest that the evident motives for this violence reflect both elements of homophobia and violent conceptions of heterosexual masculinity. Homophobic hate is directed towards gay and bisexual men who are selected out for assault by assailants on the simple basis of their group sexual identity. At the same time conventional notions of male identity often rest behind the felt necessity for a violent response to a real or imagined homosexual pass.

   NSW Police have moved beyond the complacency of earlier times, and in cooperation with gay and lesbian groups they have begun a serious effort to record and monitor these offences. Consequently, NSW appears to have a much higher rate of gay killings than other Australian States in which the community liaison is in its infancy or still resisted by traditional patterns of policing.

   A high proportion of NSW killings have resulted in the apprehension of offenders and in subsequent criminal trials. Some of these have led to the imposition of substantial sentences and clear judicial warnings issued against perpetrators of homophobic violence. But valid concerns remain about the outcome of trials in which pleas of provocation and self-defence have been raised by offenders who allege their violence was a necessary or excusable response to a homosexual advance.

6. Estimating the Numbers of Arrests as a function of an Offender's Age Professor Richard Harding and Associate Professor Ross Maller, Crime Research Centre and Dept of Mathematics, University of Western Australia (22/94-5) (1996) (364.309941 fp HAR).

   The report of this project is entitled "An Improved Methodology for Analysing Age-Arrest Profiles: Application to a Western Australian Offender Population".

   This research developed new methodologies for displaying and analysing arrest profiles and criminal career projections. Applied in relation to comprehensive longitudinal data bases, the research concluded that these methodologies permit fundamental criminological questions such as the impact of age-at-onset upon subsequent criminal careers to be re-visited. Though the methodology as described in the report is applicable to all-aged criminal careers, its application in this study focused on criminal careers commencing as juveniles. It studies the arrest profiles of all persons who commenced a criminal career, either as juveniles or later in life, in Western Australia between 1 January 1984 and 31 December 1994.

   The research concluded that age-at-onset is indeed associated with both the frequency and intensity of subsequent criminal careers. The analysis also revealed the dominance of Aboriginality, particularly male Aboriginality. For example, the data shows that male Aboriginal people entering the arrest population on average commence their criminal career at a younger age, accelerate them more rapidly, and accumulate them to a markedly greater extent than any other race/sex subdivisions. However, the research conclusions emphasises that the methodology is equally applicable to any categories that constitute comparable focal groups in any jurisdiction. Moreover, this methodological approach would enable far more reliable projections to be made as to the cross-over rates from juvenile to adult criminal career.

Research in Progress

1. Evaluation of the Introduction of Tasmanian Firearm Control Legislation Professor K. Warner and Mr R. Browne, Faculty of Law, The University of Tasmania, Hobart CRC 28/91.
2. Violence and Police Culture in Australia Professor C.A.J. Coady and Dr S. James, Department of Philosophy, The University of Melbourne CRC 17/92.
3. A Longitudinal Evaluation of the Alternatives to Violence Programme in Moreton Prison, Ms P. FitzSimons Faculty of Humanities, Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane CRC 24/93-4.
4. The Effects of Preventive Interventions for Children's Antisocial Behaviour on Parental Antisocial Tendencies Associate Professor M. Sanders, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Queensland, Brisbane CRC 28/93-4.
5. Young People and the Criminal Economy Dr R. White, Criminology Department, The University of Melbourne CRC 31/93-4.
6. Child Homicide in Victoria, 1985-1992 Associate Professor K. Polk and Dr C. Alder, Criminology Department, The University of Melbourne CRC 32/93-4.
7. Reintegrative Shaming of Violence, Drink Driving and Property Crime: A Randomised Controlled Trial Profs. J. Braithwaite and L. Sherman, Australian National University, Canberra CRC 47/93-4.
8. Adolescent Socialisation Processes: Behaviour Patterns, Attitudes and Beliefs Amongst Young Urban Aboriginals Professors J. Western, R. Homel, P. Wilson, Dr D. Brererton and Professor I.O'Connor, The University of Queensland, Brisbane CRC 3/94-5.
9. A Study of Child Abuse Allegations in Custody and Access Disputes Before the Family Court of Australia Professor T. Brown, Associate Professor M. Frederico, Ms L. Hewitt and Ms R. Martyn, Monash University, Melbourne CRC 32/94-5.
10. The Relationship between Childhood Aggression and Early Adolescent Aggressive and Delinquent Behaviours Dr W. Bor, Dr J. Najman, Dr M. O'Callaghan and Dr G. Williams, University of Queensland CRC 4/95-6.
11. Household Income, Neglect and Juvenile Crime Dr D. Weatherburn and Ms B. Lind, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics & Research CRC 17/95-6.
12. Risk Assessment Models in Sentencing and Corrections Mr F. Morgan, Crime Research Centre, University of Western Australia CRC 22/95-6.
13. Venue Observations Study Professor R. Homel and Dr M. Hauritz, Griffith University, Qld CRC 25/95-6.
14. Evaluation of the Qld Security Providers Act 1993 Dr Timothy Prenzler, Dr H. Hayes and Dr R. Wortley, Griffith University, Qld CRC 4/96-7.
15. Peer Networks and other Influences on Aboriginal Juvenile Offending Ms R. Lincoln, Mr M. Lynch and Ms E. Ogilvie, Bond University, Qld CRC 18/96-7.
16. Compare and Assess the Benefits of Treatment Programs for Male Child Sexual Offenders in Correctional Services against the costs of implementing such Programs Professor F. Briggs, Dr M. Shanahan, Ms R. Nayda and Mr D. Donato, University of South Australia CRC 23/96-7.
17. Aboriginal Youth Suicide: Towards a Model of Explanation and Alleviation Professor C. Tatz, Macquarie University CRC 25/96-7.
18. The Effectiveness of Legal Protection in Prevention of Domestic Violence in the lives of young Australian Women Professor A. Dobson, The University of Newcastle CRC 30/96-7.
19. The Effectiveness of Criminal Sanctions: A Natural Experiment Dr D. Tait, The University of Melbourne CRC 33/96-7.