Australian Institute of Criminology - reporting the facts
by senior correspondent Jennifer Martens,
with assistance from Tim Bannister and Rachael Andrews
The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) is Australia’s national research and knowledge centre on crime and justice, making it at times a useful resource for the SSAA and countless other government and non-government bodies. The Institute employs some 50 people and was established in 1973 to promote justice and reduce crime by undertaking and communicating evidence-based research to inform policy and practice.
The AIC is a Commonwealth statutory authority and operates under the Criminology Research Act 1971. Funding comes mainly from the Australian Government. However, various state and territory agencies such as the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service contracts research, providing access to data and some in-kind support. In 2010/2011, the AIC has a Commonwealth core appropriation of about $6.77 million, with $1-2 million in contracts with Commonwealth and state and territory agencies, academic institutions and grants bodies, as well as organisations from the private sector.
AIC director Dr Adam Tomison reports to the Minister for Home Affairs and to a Board of Management consisting of distinguished criminal justice practitioners from around Australia. Chairman of the Board of Management is Professor Richard G Fox AM, Faculty of Law, Monash University.
Research is the AIC’s core function. Duties include conducting criminal research, communicating the results of such research, conducting and arranging conferences and seminars, and publishing material resulting from its research.
Research is conducted on a range of crime and justice issues to provide timely, policy-relevant research to the Australian Government and other key stakeholders. Research activities fall into two main categories:
• National monitoring programs: The monitoring programs cover homicide, firearms theft, armed robbery, drug use, deaths in custody, police custody, juveniles in detention, fraud against the Commonwealth, anti-money laundering and human trafficking.
• Crime and justice projects: Recent crime and justice projects cover violent crime, drugs, transnational and organised crime, economic and high-tech crime, the criminal justice system and capacity building.
SSAA National has attended AIC conferences in the past and frequently engages with AIC staff to discuss results, methodology and its framework for information gathering. SSAA Federal Parliamentary Lobbyist Tim Bannister says the Association has at times cast doubt on the AIC’s restrictive scope, its sometimes-editorialised conclusions of reports and its unsuccessful attempts at obtaining information. He added that the latter could be minimised if the AIC consulted the stakeholders, such as the SSAA, regarding the information that should be requested from police and other data sources. However, Mr Bannister says SSAA National continues to welcome semi-independent, verifiable statistics that can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses, even if those reports are not always in our favour.
It seems the same cannot be said about Gun Control Australia (GCA), whose rapport with the AIC vacillates depending on the data it publishes. For example, the GCA website lists an article from June 2009 entitled, ‘On guns, can the Australian public trust the Australian Institute of Criminology? We say, no’. In that article, GCA accuses the AIC of “disgraceful trickery”, claiming that it introduced “humiliating errors” into a GCA submission in an attempt to make its president “a laughing stock”.
The article ‘pulls out the big guns’, so to speak, when it points an accusatory finger at the AIC, saying it has a “pro-gun bias” and that it “must take its share of the blame for poor advice to governments; thus, in all likelihood, allowing many additional guns to get into criminal hands.” The article concludes, “The Australian people are already paying too high a price for governmental laxity with an inadequate Shooters Licence, and will continue to do so because of the AIC’s pro-gun bias.”
In another article found on the website entitled, ‘Inappropriate Actions by Australian Institute of Criminology’, GCA uses an AIC researcher appearing at a SSAA Victoria fundraiser to speak about AIC reports and findings as another example of AIC’s sympathetic view on guns. In fact, this is exactly the type of activity the AIC should be doing to educate its stakeholders on its papers.
The SSAA often relies on AIC reports to refute inaccurate media reports, educate its members, influence legislation and increase politicians’ and the general public’s awareness of firearms. For example, anti-gun groups often report that gun crime is on the rise, but AIC data shows that since 1969, the percentage of homicides committed with a firearm has continued a declining trend. In 2003, fewer than 16 per cent of homicides involved firearms. And, from more recent theft data, Samantha Bricknell, senior research analyst at the AIC, said, “Only about 3 to 5 per cent of firearms stolen in a year are used in a crime or associated with an offence.”
Anti-gun groups are infamous for maligning law-abiding sporting shooters, saying they are a major source for blackmarket firearms. Philip Alpers, associate professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, recently said, “According to police, Customs and the Attorney-General’s office, firearm theft is still the major source of illicit firearm trades - that when it’s stolen it goes into the hands of a criminal.” However, AIC data from 2007 shows that firearms theft is not to blame. “More than 93 per cent of firearms used in homicides in 2006-07 were unlicensed and unregistered” (Jack Dearden and Warwick Jones, AIC 2007).
On his website, GunPolicy.org, Philip Alpers estimates that there are between 400,000 and 700,000 illicit firearms within Australia. Ms Bricknell was uncomfortable with those numbers, saying, “We don’t intend to estimate the number of ‘black’ or ‘grey market’ firearms; it is impossible to estimate these figures.”
Another example of how the AIC is a useful resource for the SSAA was highlighted when Australian Greens leader Senator Bob Brown incorrectly stated “that there are 300,000 ‘hand-machine-guns’ in Australia, many of which are carried around or hidden in car ‘glove boxes’.” Sure of Senator Brown’s error, the SSAA referred to AIC figures, which proved his statement to be incorrect. In September 2008, the AIC stated that there were 145,123 registered handguns (not hand-machine-guns!) in Australia and fewer than half of those are semi-automatic/self-loading handguns.
The AIC’s accuracy relies on the data it is given by police and other agencies. Highlighting the importance of disseminating accurate information was an admission on October 28, 2008, from South Australian Police Commissioner Mal Hyde that the South Australian Police Department had inadvertently sent the AIC the wrong figure for the number of handguns registered in the state. The department told the AIC there were 41,599 handguns registered in the state, when, in fact, the figure at the time was closer to 14,599.
In previous years, Victoria Police has also provided the AIC with incorrect information regarding stolen firearms due to a misunderstanding of the correct procedures used to fill in AIC questionnaires. Inevitably, this had the potential to skew stolen firearms statistics in Victoria.
However, many of the AIC’s annual publications are of assistance to the SSAA, including the following in recent times:
• ‘Crime Data More Accessible as Australian Crime: Facts & Figures Goes Online’, Brief May 2010.
• Australian Crime: Facts & Figures 2009.
• ‘Knives, Blunt Instruments and Strangulation Used in 90 Per Cent of Homicides’, Australian Crime: Facts & Figures 2008.
• ‘Criminal Use of Handguns in Australia’, Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice September 2008.
• ‘Armed Robbery in Australia: 2007 National Armed Robbery Monitoring Program Annual Report’, Monitoring Reports 11.
• ‘Firearm Theft in Australia 2006-07’, Monitoring Reports 2.
A number of the AIC’s reports are the direct result of the National Firearms Monitoring Program,which evolved from an Australasian Police Ministers’ Council recommendation in 1997. It is through this Australian Government-funded program that the AIC examines firearm-related crime. Other programs, such as the National Armed Robbery and National Homicide Monitoring Programs, are also used to obtain information about firearms offences. The information obtained is released in the annual ‘Firearms Theft in Australia’ report, the first of which contained data for 2004-05.
A report in 2006 examined the theft of firearms in Australia over a six-month period (Mouzos & Sakurai 2006) and looked at the types of firearms stolen and the offenders’ methods. The AIC stated that by understanding the characteristics of firearms theft, police and policymakers can ensure firearms owners provide optimal security for their firearms. In turn, this may assist in minimising the number of firearms that potentially can be diverted to the illegal firearms market.
AIC communications manager Scott Kelleher said the annual firearms theft report and similar reports will continue to be published as long as the Federal Government continues to provide funding for them. However, SSAA National was told that, as of September 2010, funding for the National Firearms Monitoring Program has not been approved and until it is, the ‘Firearm Theft in Australia 2007-08’ report will be the last in the series.
The AIC’s stakeholders consist of:
• The Minister for Home Affairs and the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD)
• The Commonwealth Government
• The Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department and justice and law enforcement agencies
• State and territory governments, justice, police and other agencies
• Academia
• Public, non-government organisations and advocacy groups
• International crime and justice groups, such as the United Nations.
Before the release of AIC publications, some stakeholders are informed of relevant reports. For instance, before the annual ‘Firearm Theft in Australia’ report is released, the Firearms Policy Working Group (FPWG), which reports to the Minister for Home Affairs and the AGD, is contacted. The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service would be informed when the Annual Australian Customs and Border Protection Service report is released.
Despite notifying interested groups, the AIC says its reports are entirely ‘independent’. SSAA National maintains healthy scepticism of the definition of ‘independent’. In addition, given that the AIC agrees to consult stakeholders, the question must be asked why the SSAA has not been consulted on data findings, nor the framework of criteria used for data collection.
The statistics released by the AIC exist because various organisations and government departments request them. The SSAA would welcome certain statistics that are not yet compiled by the AIC, such as the number of house break-ins in which no firearms were stolen due to the owner employing the proper firearm storage methods. When asked why there are no statistics for this scenario, Mr Kelleher said, “We get our statistics from police and they only supply information when firearms are stolen.” He went on to explain that for all the AIC’s monitoring reports, such as those on armed robberies, theft and homicides, there is a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that sees all agencies involved with a report in agreement on the information recorded. To change this would require support from all states and territories. For example, to obtain the information on properly stored firearms, a change in policy would have to come from the FPWG. SSAA National would encourage the collection of this information for the benefit of the community and as an additional statistical resource.
Mr Kelleher encourages people to visit the AIC website, which provides detailed statistics on homicides, fraud and deception-related crime, victims of crime, violent crime, federal offences, illicit drugs, deaths, general crime and criminal justice statistics. The website also lists its publications, upcoming events and seminars and is host to the JV Barry Library, which honours Justice Sir John Vincent Barry, the distinguished Australian criminologist and jurist. The library is a major criminal justice information resource that supports the information needs of the Institute’s research programs and provides services to key stakeholders and other clients. The library also produces the CINCH database, which is an index of Australian criminal justice information.
In addition to its website, the AIC releases information via Facebook, Twitter and Criminology TV. For more information, visit www.aic.gov.au
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