NCJ Number
86712
Date Published
1982
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The director of the Australian Institute of Criminology argues that Australia's criminal justice system generally has been effective in controlling crime, but warns against inadequate evaluations of present programs and lack of planning for the future.
Abstract
Violent and serious crime in Australia is proportionately the same now as it was at the turn of the century, indicating that the system of crime control works. However, there still exists a right and need to trace more precisely the influence of specific programs on the incidence and types of crime. Accountability has become particularly important in this era of inflation, recession, constraints in public spending, and rising unemployment, although crime control investments always drain the economy and are subject to question. Much public concern with crime is based on oversimplifications and unreal expectations. The government creates crime as fast as it controls it by structuring an industrial, commercial, and technocratic system that undermines social cohesion. Accountability is especially difficult to achieve in criminal justice because of measurement problems, ambiguous objectives, and the lack of data necessary for comparisons between long-term and short-term assessments. Moreover, what is right, just, or merciful must be balanced against what is efficient and effective. It is also futile to evaluate prevention for crimes which are in great public demand, such as gambling, drugs, pornography, and child prostitution. We cannot afford to be complacent, but must look at what is working and what is not. Specific areas which need evaluations include criteria for rehabilitation effectiveness, the gradual fall in rates of detection and cheaper correctional alternatives.