Interactions between Young People and the Police: Developing Strategies for 'Best Practice'. Youth typically hold a negative perception of police producing conflict and problematic interactions. The impact of such negative interactions is greater risk to youth and police, lower confidence in the police, and reluctance to complain about police misconduct. An effective relationship between police and young people is vital to promote efficient and smooth conduct of law and order, and to create h ....Interactions between Young People and the Police: Developing Strategies for 'Best Practice'. Youth typically hold a negative perception of police producing conflict and problematic interactions. The impact of such negative interactions is greater risk to youth and police, lower confidence in the police, and reluctance to complain about police misconduct. An effective relationship between police and young people is vital to promote efficient and smooth conduct of law and order, and to create healthier, safer communities. Our aim is to develop best practice strategies for police service delivery and for the processing of complaints against police. An intervention to promote more successful and positive police-youth interactions will be trialed and evaluated.Read moreRead less
The measurement and prediction of police interviewing performance and the dissemination of good practice through a distributive workplace learning system. This research aims to develop the first ever standardised measures of police interviewers' performance, focusing on interviews about sexual offences. Standardised measures are essential for quality control evaluation, identifying training needs, assigning workload, predicting case outcome and benchmarking organisation capabilities. By improvin ....The measurement and prediction of police interviewing performance and the dissemination of good practice through a distributive workplace learning system. This research aims to develop the first ever standardised measures of police interviewers' performance, focusing on interviews about sexual offences. Standardised measures are essential for quality control evaluation, identifying training needs, assigning workload, predicting case outcome and benchmarking organisation capabilities. By improving the quality of police interviews about sexual offences, this research will improve the reporting, prosecution and conviction rates of sexual offences, which will have a deterrent effect on potential offenders. Further, this research will reduce the stress of witnesses and suspects involved in the legal process and reduce burnout of police interviewers by increasing competency and job satisfaction.Read moreRead less
Establishing Guidelines for Coronial Best Practice Use of Internal Autopsy. Last year in Queensland 2700 Coronial internal autopsies were conducted at a cost of $5.3 million. In addition to the economic cost, other relevant concerns include few qualified personnel, public health risks, and cultural and religious sensitivities associated with internal autopsy. Anecdotal evidence suggests that for a number of these deaths, the internal autopsy was not necessary to establish cause or circumstance ....Establishing Guidelines for Coronial Best Practice Use of Internal Autopsy. Last year in Queensland 2700 Coronial internal autopsies were conducted at a cost of $5.3 million. In addition to the economic cost, other relevant concerns include few qualified personnel, public health risks, and cultural and religious sensitivities associated with internal autopsy. Anecdotal evidence suggests that for a number of these deaths, the internal autopsy was not necessary to establish cause or circumstance of death. The purpose of this research is to create guidelines to enable coroners to weight all sources of evidence before ordering internal autopsies The purpose is to decrease the number (and associated costs, risks and distress to families) of unnecessary internal autopsies being performed without compromising the finding as to cause and circumstance of death.Read moreRead less
Private Security and Public Interest: Exploring Private Security Trends and Directions for Reform in the New Era of Plural Policing. This study will provide the first ever comprehensive assessment of private security and what it can and cannot offer society in terms of fair and effective order maintenance, crime prevention and law enforcement in Australia. Stemming from problems incurred by the sector, the research will address how governments should regulate the growing range of policing functi ....Private Security and Public Interest: Exploring Private Security Trends and Directions for Reform in the New Era of Plural Policing. This study will provide the first ever comprehensive assessment of private security and what it can and cannot offer society in terms of fair and effective order maintenance, crime prevention and law enforcement in Australia. Stemming from problems incurred by the sector, the research will address how governments should regulate the growing range of policing functions undertaken by private providers. It will also address the issue of how private police can best satisfy legal and justice criteria, meet the demands of accountability and develop mutually beneficial models of cooperation with the public sector. The research will recommend to policy-makers preferred 'plural' policing models for the 21st century.Read moreRead less
Managing family objection to autopsy: a case study of the Queensland coronial system. Exploring how coroners, police, counsellors, and pathologists engage with families after the shock of a sudden or violent death, and the resulting development of an e-resource, enables a consistent and transparent whole system approach to be established. The expected benefits for the Coronial system will include: a decrease in unnecessary autopsies, a flow on to minimising staffing shortages, and an overall de ....Managing family objection to autopsy: a case study of the Queensland coronial system. Exploring how coroners, police, counsellors, and pathologists engage with families after the shock of a sudden or violent death, and the resulting development of an e-resource, enables a consistent and transparent whole system approach to be established. The expected benefits for the Coronial system will include: a decrease in unnecessary autopsies, a flow on to minimising staffing shortages, and an overall decrease in the cost of a death investigation. The benefits to the community will include: enhanced police relations with families, including those from minority religions and cultures, more informed and appropriate decision making by coroners, less invasive autopsies by pathologists, and more focused intervention by counsellors.Read moreRead less
Better Planning for and Managing Asymmetric Threats to Australia's Security: Applying the Field Anomaly Relaxation (FAR) Systems Thinking Approach. Despite an enviable national security condition, Australia is at risk in an information-abundant world that increasingly spawns asymmetric threats such as information terrorism. What is needed are enhanced strategic and operational structures to improve the nation's security and ensure sound futures planning. This research focuses on applying the Fie ....Better Planning for and Managing Asymmetric Threats to Australia's Security: Applying the Field Anomaly Relaxation (FAR) Systems Thinking Approach. Despite an enviable national security condition, Australia is at risk in an information-abundant world that increasingly spawns asymmetric threats such as information terrorism. What is needed are enhanced strategic and operational structures to improve the nation's security and ensure sound futures planning. This research focuses on applying the Field Anomaly Relaxation (FAR) systems thinking approach to asymmetric information warfare threats to Australia. This is a new approach previously developed by ECU researchers investigating risk and innovation in the armed forces. It will now be extended to improve professional practice and the knowledge and skill base of Australia's information defence practitioners.Read moreRead less
Drug Use by a Community Sample of Young Amphetamine Users in South-East Queensland â?' A Longitudinal Study. Drug use can impact on the national well being in a multitude of ways. In 1998-1999 the fiscal cost of licit and illicit drug use was estimated to be $34.4 billion, while drug-related crime is estimated to cost Australia $1.96 billion annually. This study is valuable in its capacity to inform evidence-based policy and practice addressing amphetamine uptake and amphetamine use trajectories ....Drug Use by a Community Sample of Young Amphetamine Users in South-East Queensland â?' A Longitudinal Study. Drug use can impact on the national well being in a multitude of ways. In 1998-1999 the fiscal cost of licit and illicit drug use was estimated to be $34.4 billion, while drug-related crime is estimated to cost Australia $1.96 billion annually. This study is valuable in its capacity to inform evidence-based policy and practice addressing amphetamine uptake and amphetamine use trajectories and harms. This has implications for developing strategies to enable young Australians to make healthy choices regarding amphetamine and other drug use, and for the broader economic and social benefits arising from healthy and productive individuals, families and communities.Read moreRead less
Characteristics and causes of indigenous over-representation in the criminal justice system: A Victorian case-study. Addressing Indigenous disadvantage was identified as a national priority by the Council of Australian Governments in 2002. Our research builds on this initiative by examining important policy questions that are central to Indigenous disadvantage within the justice system. This research adds substantial value to the existing national investment in the collection of data on Indige ....Characteristics and causes of indigenous over-representation in the criminal justice system: A Victorian case-study. Addressing Indigenous disadvantage was identified as a national priority by the Council of Australian Governments in 2002. Our research builds on this initiative by examining important policy questions that are central to Indigenous disadvantage within the justice system. This research adds substantial value to the existing national investment in the collection of data on Indigenous involvement in justice processes, and will assist in the development and implementation of programs to address what has previously been an intractable problem. A key element in the project is establishing strong links with Indigenous community representatives so that the results of the research are made available to those most directly concerned with them.Read moreRead less
Post-release support for women prisoners - processes of psychological and social transition. The failure of women prisoners to make a successful transition back to the community is one of the most significant problems of modern penology. Woman to Woman is an innovative mentoring and post-release support program developed by the Victorian Association for the Care and Resettlement of Prisoners. The goal of the research is to study how post-release support is delivered within a mentoring relation ....Post-release support for women prisoners - processes of psychological and social transition. The failure of women prisoners to make a successful transition back to the community is one of the most significant problems of modern penology. Woman to Woman is an innovative mentoring and post-release support program developed by the Victorian Association for the Care and Resettlement of Prisoners. The goal of the research is to study how post-release support is delivered within a mentoring relationship. The research uses interviews and surveys to examine the way that women releasees deal with the material, social and personal problems they face in the difficult weeks and months after release. The mentoring relationship is considered from the perspective of both the women releasees and the mentors.Read moreRead less
A Future Beyond the Wall: Improving Post-release Employment Outcomes for People Leaving Prison. Engaging in meaningful work has been shown to reduce re-offending by ex-prisoners, but few prison releasees internationally or in Australia gain employment, and successful pathways to employment for this group are poorly researched and understood. This study aims to gather and analyse, for the first time, comparative data from Australian jurisdictions and employment agencies on the relationship betwee ....A Future Beyond the Wall: Improving Post-release Employment Outcomes for People Leaving Prison. Engaging in meaningful work has been shown to reduce re-offending by ex-prisoners, but few prison releasees internationally or in Australia gain employment, and successful pathways to employment for this group are poorly researched and understood. This study aims to gather and analyse, for the first time, comparative data from Australian jurisdictions and employment agencies on the relationship between in-prison and post-prison vocational education and employment programs, employment and recidivism. It aims to identify effective elements, strategies, program and policy directions in offender training and employment. This is a unique partnership amongst key academics in the field, peak national bodies, correctional and employment organisations.Read moreRead less