An Analysis of Legal Aid service data: two Jurisdictional Profiles
D Bellerose | Law and Justice Foundation of NSW
November 2022
DATA ANALYSIS | This report presents an analysis of Legal Aid service delivery data in New South Wales and the Northern Territory.
Service delivery data provides an opportunity to better understand what types of legal assistance services are provided, where, for what legal problems, and to which client profiles. This report explores the potential insights that can be gained from this valuable resource. In exploring the broader question of whether service delivery data is a suitable source of evidence to guide policy decisions, the report highlights that while such data is an important factor, it is only one of many factors to be considered.
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Doing the Front End role: A study of technology-in-use in an Australian Community Legal Centre
L.A.N.Bacon | University of Technology Sydney
May 2022
THESIS | Community legal centres (CLCs) in Australia provide free legal help to people. While there are a small number of studies on how technologies are used in CLC work (such as legal records systems, digital and physical reference materials, digital communications tools, etc.), there is limited availability of ethnographic accounts to provide richer descriptions of everyday CLC practices for use by CLC teams and their collaborators as they design and integrate new technologies. This report highlights the ongoing practical challenges of incorporating technologies in these constantly evolving work situations, identifying areas for potential design intervention and ongoing reflective research collaborations.
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Evaluation Lawyer-assisted Family Law Property Mediation
R Carson, L Qu, R Kaspiew, E Stevens, K Sakata, B Horsfall, J De Maio | Australian Institute of Family Studies
August 2022
EVALUATION | This report presents the findings of the evaluation of the Lawyer‑Assisted Family Law Property Mediation: Legal Aid Commission Trial (the LAC Trial). The LAC Trial program provides legally assisted mediation for small value property matters (where the net assets are $500,000 or less excluding superannuation). The LAC Trial was one of two complementary initiatives funded under the Women’s Economic Security Package (WESP), initially scheduled to run from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021, with a later extension to June 2023. The initiatives are aimed at increasing access to mechanisms to resolve post‑separation property matters for parties (particularly women) for whom the value of the property pool may make it uneconomic to pursue an outcome through family law system services (mediation or a court process) due to a gap in the availability of efficient, low-cost avenues for property settlement.
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Literature review on yarning circles in a criminal justice context
H Taylor, L Bartels, M Crowe & V Marshall | Centre for Social Research and Methods (ANU)
October 2022
LITERATURE REVIEW | The ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS) has developed and is implementing the Yarning Circles for Justice (YCJ) program, which operates a post-prison program, as well an in-prison yarning circle program. As set out in the ACT Government’s information paper about yarning circles and other relevant programs (JACS 2020), YCJ was designed, in partnership with the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, as a series of culturally-informed programs for men and women. It seeks to engage participants in building capacity, to manage daily life outside prison, empower them to re-establish crucial links to community and culture, and restore positive relationships with friends, family and peers.
This report presents a select literature review on yarning circles within the justice system, to provide insight into the unique cultural elements of yarning practices and inform how yarning circles can best operate in ACT justice system.
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Restoring victims’ confidence: Victim-centred restorative practices
J Wemmers, I Parent, & M L Quirion | International Review of Victimology
October 2022
RESEARCH PAPER | Victimisation, and in particular sexual violence, undermines victims’ confidence and self-esteem. Victims often feel guilty and blame themselves for what happened. Fearing negative reactions, victims of sexual violence are often reluctant to report the crime to police. When victims do report to the police, the criminal justice process is often reported by victims to be a difficult experience and most sexual violence cases do not end in a conviction. Restorative practices (hereafter RP) have been presented both as a possible alternative and a complement to the criminal justice process, which could improve victims’ experiences. However, there is also considerable resistance to the use of RP in cases of gender-based violence. Using a victim-centred lens, in which it is seen as a reaction to victimisation that aims to address the needs of the victim and allow them to advance in their healing process, this paper examines RP. Based on semi-structured interviews with 18 victims of sexual violence in Canada who participated in RP, the paper explores the healing potential for victims. The paper concludes that for victims of sexual violence, victim-centred RP should be viewed as a tool for victim support and not only as another tool in the criminal justice toolkit.
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Australia's Emerging Incarceration Crisis: Proposed reforms of the Australian Sentencing System
M Bagaric | Institute of Public Affairs
November 2022
RESEARCH REPORT | This report examines the gulf between sentencing knowledge and practice and makes recommendations regarding the measures that need to be undertaken to bridge that gap, so that law-makers can bring sentencing practice in line with current knowledge and make it fairer and more efficient. The report states that if the proposals in this report are adopted, the incarceration rate could be reduced by up to 30%, far less tax-payer dollars will be spent on prisons and the community will be safer.
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A Data Driven Approach to Evaluating and Improving Judicial Decision-Making: Statistical Analysis of the Judicial Review of Refugee Cases in Australia
D Ghezelbash, K Dorostkar & S Walsh | UNSW Law Journal
August 2022
DATA ANALYSIS | This article presents analysis of a database of over 6,700 applications for judicial review of refugee cases in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. The data reveals that the rate at which applications for judicial review are accepted by the Court varies widely based on the judge who hears the case and a number of other factors. While the findings are not necessarily a matter for concern, the authors argue that they do raise questions around the potential influence of cognitive and social biases in judicial decision-making, as well as in relation to the case management and resourcing of the Court. Drawing on recent research in the field of cognitive and behavioural sciences, this paper outlines how statistics of the nature collected in this study could inform interventions and reforms aimed at addressing such biases and increase public confidence in the judicial system.
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Double Jeopardy: the economic and social costs of keeping women behind bars
Committee for Economic Development of Australia
November 2022
DISCUSSION PAPER | This paper provides a foundational framework proposing reforms for the imprisonment of women in Australia. The report seeks to highlight the key issues and emphasise the need to reduce rates of female imprisonment through a nationally consistent approach.
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Seeing the Harm to Happiness: Integrating Satisfaction with Life Into Restorative Practices
J Olsen, R S Sarver, B Killian | Criminal Justice Policy Review
October 2022
DISCUSSION PAPER | This article proposes an approach to intervening in harms that is based on the integration of positive psychology and restorative justice. The paper begins by reviewing the importance of interpersonal relationships to restorative justice. Next, the paper discusses harms as viewed in restorative justice. The paper then explores the concept and language of happiness through models of satisfaction with life (SWL) from positive psychology. The article concludes by proposing the integration of models of SWL into the practices of restorative dialogue and the development of restoration plans.
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Criminal justice mobile applications: a literature and scoping review
H Taylor, L Bartels & D van Rooy | Centre for Social Research & Methods (ANU)
October 2022
LITERATURE REVIEW | The increasing availability and use of applications for mobile phones (apps) has allowed for innovative solutions to address a range of issues, most prominently in the area of health behaviour change. Such advances in technology have also created opportunities within the justice context and the past decade has seen the development and increased use of mobile apps in the criminal justice system.
The Justice and Community Safety Directorate of the ACT Government commissioned the Australian National University to conduct a literature and scoping review of apps used in the criminal justice system which are designed to influence behaviour. The focus of this review is on those technologies that support behaviour change among individuals involved in the criminal justice system and, in particular, on those technologies that aim to contribute towards the goal of reducing reoffending.
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Family, Domestic & Sexual Violence
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Keeping people safe from domestic and family violence, Report 5: 2022-23
Queensland Auditor General | Queensland Audit Office
RESEARCH REPORT | Domestic and family violence (DFV) is a complex societal problem that needs a comprehensive, coordinated approach. The complexity arises because of the mix of victims, perpetrators, types of violence, involvement of children and the sheer scale of the problem.
This report identifies opportunities for public sector entities and service providers to integrate, coordinate and complement their DFV responses and support services to keep people safe and prevent future violence. The report highlights the need for entities to understand and assess the impacts of DFV and the necessary supports needed for a family unit. The report also stresses the need for entities and service providers within the sector to work together to effectively deal with all aspects of domestic and family violence.
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The sexual exploitation of Australian children on dating apps and websites, Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice no. 658
C Teunissen, H Boxall, S Napier, & R Brown | Australian Institute of Criminology
October 2022
RESEARCH | This study presents the findings from a large survey of people living in Australia (n=9,987) who had used mobile dating apps and/or dating websites in the previous five years. Across the entire sample, 12.4 percent of respondents reported receiving requests to facilitate the sexual exploitation of their own children or children they had access to. Requests included asking for sexual information about children or for sexual images or videos of children, asking to meet children in person or asking for children to perform sex acts over webcam.
The paper highlights the need for additional safety features to be embedded in mobile dating apps and dating websites to protect vulnerable users and to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.
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About this newsletter
JARA is a free email alert service covering recent research in the area of access to justice and legal need. JARA entries are publications identified by Foundation staff rather than the product of a systematic search or review. Foundation staff have produced the summaries based on the original publications. The summaries do not necessarily reflect the views of the authors or the Law and Justice Foundation. Your feedback is important to us. If you have any comments or suggestions please email us at publications@lawfoundation.net.au
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