Recidivism in Australia : findings and future research - Australian ...

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Recidivism in Australia: findings and future research
Underlying research in the criminal justice sector is the knowledge that crime and victimisation
incur significant costs, both financial and social, to the Australian community. In 2002 the AIC
estimated the annual financial cost of crime in Australia at $19 billion. An additional $13 billion
was spent on criminal justice services such as policing, corrections, court administration and
security (Mayhew 2003). At the macro level these figures indicate the economic importance
of crime to the Australian community. At the micro level they demonstrate the impact of crime
on individuals, families and communities – an impact that is clearly indicated by national
victimisation estimates, which suggest that every year almost 10 percent of Australians
are victims of personal crime (robbery, assault and personal theft) while one in five households
experience a burglary, theft or motor vehicle theft (Johnson 2005). On average, there are two
victims of theft every minute of every day in Australia (ABS 2005a).
Growing concern for public safety places government at the forefront of the crime prevention
agenda. The criminal justice system is the network of agencies that aim to prevent and investigate
crime as well as to ensure that those who break the law are held accountable. The Steering
Committee for the Review of Government Services Provision (SCRGS) has summarised the
objectives of the criminal justice system as providing protection for the rights and freedoms
of all people through the:
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operation of police services that enhance community safety by preventing, detecting
and investigating crime
administration of criminal justice that determines guilt and applies appropriate,
consistent and fair sanctions to offenders
provision of a safe, secure and humane custodial environment and an effective community
corrections environment that provide program interventions to reduce the risk of reoffending.
These objectives are to be ‘pursued in a manner that is accessible, equitable, timely and
efficient’ (SCRGS 2006). That is, governments are not only responsible for providing criminal
justice services but also for ensuring that these services are delivered equitably, fairly and
efficiently to the Australian community.
Of particular interest to this report are the terms ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’. They are terms
that have, in the past 20 years, become ensconced in the political lexicon as indicators of the
quality and cost of government service provision. They apply to all facets of the criminal justice
system and are of great interest to researchers. In her account of the development of therapeutic
jurisprudence in the Australian court system for example, Jefferies noted that courts, Australia
wide, have experienced shifts in the intellectual paradigm concerning the roles and responsibilities
of the criminal justice system in delivering interventions designed to address the underlying