Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal sex-offenders in Australia: Assessing risk for practice and policy. A key priority of Australian governments is to improve community safety through reducing the risk of sex offenders re-offending after release from prison. This project will assess the validity of tools used to predict the risk of sexual offender recidivism and identify alternate risk assessment tools for Indigenous and non-Indigenous sex offenders.
Improving social and economic outcomes for children of incarcerated mothers. This project aims to identify how children’s experiences of maternal incarceration shape their life course. These children are one of the most vulnerable yet invisible groups in society and are rising in number. This project intends to interrogate system contact with child protection, justice, education and health agencies using a unique linked dataset across 30 years and over three generations, to describe social and e ....Improving social and economic outcomes for children of incarcerated mothers. This project aims to identify how children’s experiences of maternal incarceration shape their life course. These children are one of the most vulnerable yet invisible groups in society and are rising in number. This project intends to interrogate system contact with child protection, justice, education and health agencies using a unique linked dataset across 30 years and over three generations, to describe social and economic outcomes and how prison, child and maternal characteristics affect them. The project expects to provide critical evidence that can inform prevention strategies, with the potential to disrupt intergenerational patterns of profound disadvantage and reduce the social and economic costs of maternal incarceration to individuals and society.Read moreRead less
Reducing young women’s offending through improved service delivery . Young women’s contact with justice and welfare agencies has increased rapidly across Australia and the world, creating a crisis that is costly and harmful, especially for young Indigenous women. Pathways into these systems are gendered; but the systems were designed to address the needs of young male offenders. This project therefore aims to discover how these systems could be better designed to improve outcomes for young women ....Reducing young women’s offending through improved service delivery . Young women’s contact with justice and welfare agencies has increased rapidly across Australia and the world, creating a crisis that is costly and harmful, especially for young Indigenous women. Pathways into these systems are gendered; but the systems were designed to address the needs of young male offenders. This project therefore aims to discover how these systems could be better designed to improve outcomes for young women. The project uses a novel approach that gives young women a voice in how five Anglicare end-users (the research partners) and other end-users can enhance their service provision in the welfare and justice sectors and become models of best practice.Read moreRead less
Regulation of Indigenous Safety Strategies: Night Patrols & Policy. This project aims to identify the qualities that make Indigenous night patrols (NPs) unique, to inform and improve the capacities of agencies and regulatory authorities and indigenous communities to work together, leading to greater security, peace and safety. Crime and safety in Aboriginal communities remains a major concern. NPs, an Australian innovation developed by Aboriginal communities, have become key players in local cri ....Regulation of Indigenous Safety Strategies: Night Patrols & Policy. This project aims to identify the qualities that make Indigenous night patrols (NPs) unique, to inform and improve the capacities of agencies and regulatory authorities and indigenous communities to work together, leading to greater security, peace and safety. Crime and safety in Aboriginal communities remains a major concern. NPs, an Australian innovation developed by Aboriginal communities, have become key players in local crime reduction strategies, and carry the endorsement of both government and Aboriginal communities. However, they are operating in an environment of increased ‘top-down’ control and regulation. Does greater accountability to government weaken NP’s ‘cultural’ accountability to communities? This project explores the qualities that make NPs unique. This includes the prominent, and neglected, role of Indigenous women as patrollers and clients, who may lose out should NPs become like mainstream community safety mechanisms.Read moreRead less