Aim: To examine trends in the use of conditional discharges in New South Wales Local Courts between 2004 and 2015. Method: Data for adults found guilty of at least one offence in the New South Wales Local Courts between January 2004 and September 2015 were examined. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine whether...

Aim: To determine whether recidivism was associated with parole release authority; and to determine whether re-offending was also related to being under supervision or not. Method: Time to first proven re-offence was examined for 1,644 matched offenders who served between 18 and 36 months in custody using Cox proportional hazard regression. Being on-parole was included...

Aim: To investigate whether referral to the Intensive Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program (IDATP) reduces re‑offending and/or returns to custody. Method: The study sample included 1,285 offenders who were released from NSW custody on or after 1 January 2013, all of whom satisfied IDATP eligibility criteria. An intention-to-treat (ITT) design was employed to protect against...

New research by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) shows that prison is no more effective in deterring domestic violence (DV) offenders than a suspended sentence. BOCSAR compared 1,612 matched pairs of DV offenders, one of whom received a prison sentence of 12 months or less and the other of whom received a...

Aim: To determine whether the inclusion of child protection data improves the ability to predict re-offending in young persons with few prior formal contacts with the criminal justice system. Method: A cohort of young persons who had their first, second or third formal contact with the criminal justice system (i.e., police caution, youth justice conference...