New South Wales custody statistics: quarterly update March 2015

This report presents 24 months of reception, discharge and custody population data and comparisons between the current and previous quarter for age, gender, indigenous status, most serious offence and the average length of stay. Separate figures are presented for juveniles and adults. The counting unit is a cust odial episode. An individual will be counted multiple times in a period if they have multiple custodial episodes in that period. The data in this report are extracted from the Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) Offender Integrated Management System (OIMS) and the Juvenile Justice NSW (JJNSW) Client Information Management System (CIMS). The adult custody population figures include only those persons held in gazetted correctional centres managed by CSNSW. This includes: persons managed as forensic patients, persons held after expiry of their sentence awaiting deportation and persons awaiting extradition to another jurisdiction. Persons in the Special Purpose Centre at Long Bay Correctional Centre are not included. In addition to gazetted correctional centres, CSNSW manages a number of police/court cell complexes. This report excludes persons received into and then discharged from a CSNSW managed 24 hour police/court cell complex without entering a gazetted correctional centre. Adults refused police bail but not held in a gazetted correctional centre are not included. Custody population figures are counted as at midnight on the last day of the month or quarter as appropriate. Reception and discharge figures are those during each month or quarter as appropriate

2011 Strategic roadmap for Australian research infrastructure

The 2011 Roadmap articulates the priority research infrastructure areas of a national scale (capability areas) to further develop Australia’s research capacity and improve innovation and research outcomes over the next five to ten years. The capability areas have been identified through considered analysis of input provided by stakeholders, in conjunction with specialist advice from Expert Working Groups   It is intended the Strategic Framework will provide a high-level policy framework, which will include principles to guide the development of policy advice and the design of programs related to the funding of research infrastructure by the Australian Government. Roadmapping has been identified in the Strategic Framework Discussion Paper as the most appropriate prioritisation mechanism for national, collaborative research infrastructure. The strategic identification of Capability areas through a consultative roadmapping process was also validated in the report of the 2010 NCRIS Evaluation. The 2011 Roadmap is primarily concerned with medium to large-scale research infrastructure. However, any landmark infrastructure (typically involving an investment in excess of $100 million over five years from the Australian Government) requirements identified in this process will be noted. NRIC has also developed a ‘Process to identify and prioritise Australian Government landmark research infrastructure investments’ which is currently under consideration by the government as part of broader deliberations relating to research infrastructure. NRIC will have strategic oversight of the development of the 2011 Roadmap as part of its overall policy view of research infrastructure

Caution versus conference referral: a comparison of police diversion in reducing re-contact by first-time Indigenous juvenile offenders in South Australia

This report compares the effectiveness of formal police cautioning and family conferencing in reducing re-contact with the criminal justice system by first-time Indigenous juvenile offenders. Introduction The over-representation of Indigenous young people in the criminal justice system remains a significant social justice and public policy issue in Australia. It has been suggested that an increased use of effective police diversion can reduce Indigenous over-representation. Diversion can be defined as the practice of diverting young people from entering or continuing into the formal criminal justice system and commonly involves pre-court processes and programs. Two of the most frequently used methods of diversion in South Australia are formal police cautioning and family conferencing. While a number of studies have investigated the effectiveness of diversion in reducing re-offending by Indigenous juveniles, only Cunningham (2007) and Allard et al. (2009) have investigated the effectiveness of formal police cautioning and family conferencing in reducing re-offending by first-time Indigenous juvenile offenders (F-TIJOs). However, these two studies report conflicting findings and contain notable methodological limitations, including: (i) short follow-up periods, (ii) failure to track re-offending into adulthood, (iii) small sample sizes, (iv) failure to examine more than two recidivism outcomes, and (v) risks of bias due to failure to control for significant predictors of re-offending and failure to analyse data on intention to treat. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of two methods of diversion; cautioning and referral to conferencing, in reducing re-contact by F-TIJOs using methods to overcome the limitations of previous research. To address these methodological limitations the current study (i) employed a follow-up period of 24 months for each offender regardless of whether this period extended into the adult justice system, (ii) analysed four recidivism outcomes, (iii) analysed data on intention to treat, and (iv) employed propensity score matching to control for significant predictors of re-offending. The following research question was examined: (1) Did the proportion of F-TIJOs who re-contacted with police within 24 months differ between those who received a formal police caution and those who received a referral to a family conference? For those who re-contacted within 24 months, the following research questions were also examined: (2) Did the frequency of re-contact differ between F-TIJOs who received a formal police caution and those who received a referral to a family conference?, (3) Did the seriousness of first re-contact differ between F-TIJOs who received a formal police caution and those who received a referral to a family conference?, and (4) Did time to re-contact differ between F-TIJOs who received a formal police caution and those who received a referral to a family conference

Australian Bureau of Statistics personal safety, Australia 2012: the South Australian perspective

Introduction: This report summarises the key South Australian findings from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Personal Safety, Australia, 2012 (cat. no. 4906.0) in which Australia-wide and very limited state-specific information was released on 11 December 2013 with additional state-specific information released on 7 July 2014. Personal Safety, Australia, 2012 provides the results of an Australia-wide personal safety survey undertaken by the ABS from February to December 2012. The survey collected information about the nature and extent of violence experienced by men and women since the age of 15, including their experience of violence in the 12 months prior to the survey. Also collected was detailed information about men\u27s and women\u27s experience of current and previous partner violence, physical and sexual violence, and lifetime experience of stalking. This is the second time the personal safety survey has been conducted, with the first survey carried out in 2005. The scope, content and data collection methods for the two surveys are very similar, with the exception of a significantly larger sample size for the latest survey, and slight changes to the questions and/or definitions to improve respondents’ understanding of the questions. These changes are minimal and should not impact on the comparability of data between 2005 and 2012

Is devolution good for the Scottish economy? A framework for analysis

This briefing sets out a framework for addressing the question: Is devolution good for the Scottish economy? We are currently implementing the approach and shall report the results in due course. We begin with two observations. Economic issues were clearly not the sole, or even the primary, motivation for Scottish devolution. However, given the current priority given to the decentralised delivery of policies to improve productivity the effect is of considerable interest. Devolution being 'good for the Scottish economy' is not necessarily the same thing as being 'good for the Scottish people'. If, for example, Scotland wanted to become 'greener', this could imply a desire for slower growth than in the rest of the UK. We set out below the aggregate effects and the specific mechanisms through which devolution might be expected to impact on the economy

The Road to Recovery: Fiscal Stimulus, Financial Sector Rehabilitation, and Exit from Policy Easing

The worst of the global financial crisis is probably behind us, but the trajectory to recovery may vary widely across economies. Employing a dynamic structural multi-country model with a financial accelerator, this paper studies the role of three important policy actions in economic recovery: fiscal stimulus, financial sector rehabilitation and exit from policy easing. The main finding is that while both fiscal stimulus and financial sector rehabilitation contribute to economic recovery, the former is likely to be less effective from a medium-term perspective and may generate some negative side effects. This finding suggests that policy priority (of advanced economies in particular) should be on continued financial sector rehabilitation. Moreover, international policy co-ordination is beneficial as it can generate spillovers to regional economies. We also study the effects of over-estimation of the post-crisis potential output by the monetary authorities in advanced economies in their policymaking. We find that this may affect economic recovery in the region through inflationary pressure and the consequent policy tightening.GIMF model; Financial accelerator; Fiscal stimulus; Financial rehabilitation

A Framework for Monitoring Capital Flows in Hong Kong

In this paper we attempt to delineate conceptual issues relating to the definition of capital flows, and introduce a framework that organises survey data and accounting information at different time horizons to form a judgment on the nature and scale of fund flows in Hong Kong. Given the complexity of international financial transactions in Hong Kong, cross-border capital flows may not correspond closely to fund flows into and out of the Hong Kong dollar. A comprehensive view on the scale and nature of capital flows in Hong Kong requires the joint analysis of both monetary and Balance of Payments statistics, in addition to information gathered through market intelligence. We then apply the monitoring framework to analyse four episodes of large fund flows between 2003 and mid-2009.Capital flows; Fund flows; Hong Kong; Balance of Payments; External claims and liabilities of banks; Monetary Survey

A Structural Investigation into the Price and Wage Dynamics in Hong Kong

This paper estimates the degree of wage and price flexibility of the Hong Kong economy with the use of a stylised dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model developed for the Hong Kong economy. It also studies the factors contributing to deflation in Hong Kong following the Asian financial crisis (i.e. during the period from 1998 to 2003) and finds that declining import prices were the main culprit. Consistent with earlier studies on the subject and anecdotal evidence, wages and prices in Hong Kong are found to be (relatively) flexible.DSGE, Bayesian Estimation, Nominal Rigidities

Agenda: 2017 Community Engagement and Research Symposium

Agenda for the 6th annual Community Engagement and Research Symposium, held Friday, March 3, 2017 at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA