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

36
Recidivism in Australia: findings and future research
Table 1: Data sources for recidivism research (continued)
Common
source Measure Advantages Disadvantages
Subject to bias from early plea negotiation.
Allow differentiation between charges
where some evidence existed for
affirmative prosecution.
Offences resulting
in affirmative
prosecution.
Prosecuting
agency files
Affirmative
prosecution
Files are rarely electronic and require second
level coding.
Do not include cross-jurisdictional offending.
Will include some offences where the offender
was not guilty, but fewer such cases than
police arrest data.
Reduces the number of offences
counted where the offender was not
guilty or where there was insufficient
evidence to prosecute – greater
alignment with the burden of proof
required for conviction.
May aggregate offence details into single
prosecution records – information is lost
about individual offences.
Inflate the time to event data – data
include criminal justice processing.
Reduces the impact of bias in police
charging practices – only those
offences that can be proved will
be prosecuted.
Subject to bias from early plea negotiation.
Convictions relate only to those
offences where the offender pleaded
guilty or was proven guilty.
Offences resulting
in a conviction –
by the offender
pleading or being
found at trial.
Conviction Court outcome
database
Do not include cross-jurisdictional offending.
Information about the date and time of
an offence may become less available.
Prosecuting
agency files
May aggregate offence details into single
conviction records – information is lost
about individual offences.
Inflate the time to event data – data
include criminal justice processing.
State/territory and
Federal police –
court outcome
is recorded in
some cases