Annual reports

Introduction

published in:
28th Annual Report of the Criminology Research Council, 2000
ISSN 0311-4481
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2000

The Criminology Research Council (CRC) was established by the Criminology Research Act 1971, and it held its first meeting on 20 December 1972. The CRC meets three times a year. The Criminology Research Act was enacted pursuant to arrangements between the Commonwealth and the States for the promotion of criminological research. These arrangements provided for the establishment of an Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), a Criminology Research Council and a Criminology Research Fund. The Criminology Research Council controls and administers the Criminology Research Fund from which grants are made to researchers undertaking criminological research projects. Criminological research is defined as research undertaken in connection with the causes, correction and prevention of criminal behaviour and in any related matter.

The Criminology Research Act provides that, in administering the fund, the CRC is to examine and determine the relative importance and urgency of projects of criminological research for which the expenditure of moneys from the Fund may be authorised. The Act also provides that the functions of the AIC include advising the CRC in relation to needs for, and programs of, criminological research, and providing secretarial and administrative services for the CRC.

Details of projects funded during the year together with summaries of the following completed projects are provided in the Research Projects section: Aboriginal Youth Suicide: Towards a Model of Explanation and Alleviation; The Effectiveness of Legal Protection in Prevention of Domestic Violence in the Lives of Young Australian Women; Directors' Misconduct Decriminalised: Are the Civil Sanctions in the Corporations Law Effective?; Young Women in the Juvenile Justice System; An Examination of the Illegal Art Market in Australia; A Survey of Aboriginal Community Attitudes to Domestic Violence; The Characteristics of Child Molesters and Child Molesting in Queensland. This section also contains details of projects currently in progress.

Reports of completed projects undertaken with CRC funds are distributed to each CRC member. Members ensure that relevant persons and departmental sections are made aware of the availability of the reports. Two copies of each report are lodged in the J. V. Barry Library of the AIC. Through the library, the reports are listed on the Kinetica, Australia's national shared-cataloguing system and the largest bibliographic network in the country, and on CINCH, the Australian criminology database which is publicly available online and on CD-ROM. With hundreds of libraries Australia- wide participating in Kinetica, CRC reports receive wide coverage concerning their availability. All reports are available from the J. V. Barry Library through interlibrary loan.

The CRC's section of the AIC web site has been expanded during the year to provide information on reports submitted to the CRC. This work is ongoing and once completed, will provide a historical record of all CRC-funded projects and the reports submitted in fulfilment of the projects.

Under grant funding arrangements the grantee is responsible for the distribution of the final report. Many researchers choose to publish in the form of books and journal articles making research readily available to the broader community. Researchers also distribute copies to appropriate departments and agencies.

The CRC has a commitment to quality assurance, and as part of this approach seeks to create improved opportunities for publication of reports from research which it funds. The CRC therefore retains the right to publish all or part of selected research products.

Criminology Research Fund

Contributions to the Criminology Research Fund by the participating governments for the 1999-2000 financial year totalled $364,000. The Commonwealth Government contributed $232,000 and each State and the Northern Territory made a contribution on a pro rata population basis, individual contributions were as follows:

New South Wales	$45 506
Victoria	$33 357
Queensland	$24 787
Western Australia	$13 144
South Australia	$10 598
Tasmania	$3 350
Northern Territory	$1 358

Details of expenditure and income are shown in the Financial Statements later in this report.

Membership

The Criminology Research Act provides that the CRC is to consist of eight members, comprising a representative of the Commonwealth and of each State and the Northern Territory. The Commonwealth representative is appointed by the Attorney-General and the State and Northern Territory representatives are appointed by the Attorney-General upon the nomination of the appropriate State or Territory minister.

The CRC itself does not employ any staff members, but issues a fee to the AIC to provide it with advice and secretarial and administrative services.

During the year members of the CRC were as follows:

New South Wales
Laurie Glanfield (Chair), Director-General, Attorney-General's Department

Commonwealth
Norman Reaburn, Deputy Secretary, Attorney-General's Department (December 1994-April 2000)
Ian Carnell, General Manager, Criminal Justice and Security, Attorney-General's Department

Victoria
Peter Harmsworth, Secretary, Department of Justice

Queensland
Dr Kenneth Levy, Deputy Director-General, Department of Justice

Western Australia
Dr Robert Fitzgerald, Executive Director, Policy & Legislation Division, Ministry of Justice

South Australia
Joy Wundersitz, Director, Office of Crime Statistics, Attorney-General's Department

Tasmania
Denbigh Richards, Deputy Director, Department of Justice (May 1998-April 2000)

Northern Territory
David Moore, Commissioner, Northern Territory Correctional Services

Meetings

Three meetings of the CRC were held during the year: the meeting on 29 July 1999 was convened at the Department of Justice, Brisbane, and the meetings of 25 November 1999 and 30 March 2000 were held at the AIC, Canberra.

At the meeting of 30 March 2000, Mr Laurie Glanfield was unanimously re-elected Chair of the CRC. At this meeting the CRC appointed its representatives from Queensland, Northern Territory, Tasmania and NSW as Members of the Board of Management of the AIC.

Council Policy

Section 40 of the Criminology Research Act provides that the functions of the CRC are to administer the Criminology Research Fund and, for that purpose, to examine and determine the relative importance and urgency of projects for which the expenditure of moneys from the Fund may be authorised.

The Guidelines for Grants issued by the CRC with application forms for grants, state that the criteria adopted by the CRC in consideration of applications include the following:

1. public policy relevance;
2. the extent to which the proposed research will have practical application and contribute to the prevention or correction of criminal behaviour;
3. the likelihood of the proposed research making a substantial and original contribution to criminological knowledge;
4. the cost-effectiveness of the research;
5. the soundness of the design and methodology and the feasibility of the research;
6. the competence of the applicant(s) or principal investigator(s) to undertake the proposed research;
7. Ethics Committee approval, where appropriate;
8. availability of data, where required; and
9. the extent of funding or in-kind support obtained from relevant agencies.

Prior to the November 1999 meeting, the CRC held a consultation meeting with a number of key Australian academics in criminology. The CRC relies heavily on the work of Australia's academic community, and sees a strong and positive dialogue with the academic community as crucial. The object of the meeting was to discuss how the legislation could best be implemented so as to give maximum benefit to government and the community.

The CRC devised a strategic plan for 2000-01 and resolved to set research priorities that are relevant to current and future public policy issues and to encourage research that involves collaborative funding by other agencies and sources.

The CRC resolved to dedicate its future meetings to specific issues:

• March 2000: Establish CRC priorities for the forthcoming year
• July 2000: Target specific areas for grants
• November 2000: General grants round

The CRC also revised the procedure for processing applications for the general grants round in November. Applications will be considered by a panel (comprising the Criminology Research Adviser and two criminologists), the members of which will forward their recommendations to CRC for c onsideration at the November meeting.

When reports of completed projects are received, the CRC examines the results of the research so that the value and implementation potential of the reports can be assessed.

Appreciation

The CRC wishes to express its appreciation to Mr Norman Reaburn, the Commonwealth representative from 1994 to 2000, and Mr Denbigh Richards, Tasmania representative from 1998 to 2000. The CRC also wishes to express its gratitude for the support given by Professor David Biles and Dr Russell Smith, as Advisers to the CRC, and AIC staff members Ms Kathy Mildren, Administrator, Mr Raju Mahen and Ms Robyn Edwards, Account Officers.

Freedom of Information Act

The statement made in the AIC's Annual Report also applies to the CRC. The CRC received no requests for information under the provisions of the Act during the year ending 30 June 2000.

Appointment of Criminology Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow

In March 1999 CRC established a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship to advance the CRC's objective of fostering quality criminological research. Dr Emma Ogilvie was appointed to the position in November 1999.