Senior Research Officer

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics & Research

Departmental Professional Officer Grade III
Research Unit, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

PURPOSE OF POSITION
Conduct research into crime and criminal justice.

ORGANISATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Senior Research Officers report directly to the Research Manager. No position reports directly to the Senior Research Officer.

ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT
The Attorney General's Department provides a legal and administrative framework to facilitate the conduct of the Attorney General's role as the first Law Officer of the Crown, as well as providing support services enabling the Attorney's legislative and advisory responsibilities to Parliament and Cabinet to be carried out.

The Department assists the Government, the Judiciary, the Parliament and the community to protect individual rights, community standards and to provide an equitable justice system for New South Wales. The Department facilitates multi-jurisdictional court sittings across the State, in addition to tribunals and mediation sessions. To achieve organisational excellence, the Department requires complex but highly effective information communications between its 40 business centres, as well as between the judiciary and other justice related organisations. The Department’s vision is to provide an efficient legal system, which the community recognises as delivering flexible and responsive outcomes.

A senior management structure is in place to enable the effective implementation of strategies for policy and service delivery co-ordination and collaboration. This structure comprises the following organisational groups: Court and Tribunal Services; Corporate Services; Crime Prevention and Community Programs; Policy and Legal; Crown Solicitor’s Office; Public Trustee; Office of the Protective Commissioner and Office of the Public Guardian; Registry of Birth Deaths and Marriages; Office of the Legal Services Commissioner; Legal Management Services and the Executive Coordination Branch.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research conducts research and analysis designed to inform resource and policy decisions concerning crime control and criminal justice administration. While each agency within the NSW criminal justice system maintains some capacity for research and analysis on matters within its purview, the Bureau is the only NSW Government research agency with a mandate to conduct research across the full spectrum of crime and criminal justice issues. It has a particular responsibility to identify opportunities for improving the coordination of initiatives between agencies within the NSW criminal justice system.

The Bureau is one of the largest criminological research agencies in Australia. In the course of any given year it produces nine statistical reports, and ten or more reports or bulletins presenting research findings or information on issues of topical interest in crime and justice. The Bureau also fields up to 1000 direct enquiries from Parliament, other Government Departments, the media and the public. In addition, the Bureau is represented on national committees with responsibility for designing national crime victim surveys and ensuring the development of national uniform crime, court and correctional statistics.

Much of the Bureau’s work may lead to significant changes or developments in Government policy. Policy initiatives directly influenced by Bureau research, for example, have included reforms to the law in the areas of sexual assault, victim compensation, fine default, and sentencing and domestic violence. The Bureau’s statistical reports on subjects such as crime, sentencing and court delay also often exert a strong indirect influence on Government policy through their effects on the nature and direction of public debate about crime and criminal justice.

The Research Section is one of the three main sections within the Bureau. The section conducts research into crime and criminal justice. The Senior Research Officer’s role is crucial in this process. The Senior Research Officer must design, conduct, analyse, interpret and write up the results of research, while complying with international quality standards and time deadlines.

NATURE AND SCOPE OF POSITION

Work Performed
The Senior Research Officer is responsible for:

Undertaking research into crime and criminal justice;

Evaluating the impact of programs on crime, criminal justice and re-offending

Writing research reports and briefing notes;

Presenting seminars and conference papers;

Providing technical advice to Departmental staff and staff from other agencies on research methodology;

Reviewing research proposals and research papers by outside individuals and organisations;

Promoting Equal Employment Opportunity, the Ethnic Affairs Policy Statement and Occupational Health and Safety Guidelines policies. Challenges/Problem Solving

The key challenges of the position are:

Working out how to evaluate programs in non-experimental settings;

Keeping abreast of the literature on crime, criminal justice and crime prevention;

Writing reports to tight deadlines;

Remaining objective and dispassionate while maintaining a good working relationship with clients, collaborators, key stakeholders, program managers and policy analysts.

Decision Making
The Senior Research Officer has responsibility for producing high quality, timely research. As a part of this process, the Senior Research Officer makes decisions about the appropriate measurement instruments and sampling of subjects for research projects, the appropriate testing, presentation and interpretation of statistical data to be included in research reports, and the structure and argument of written reports.

Interpersonal Relationships
Inform the Research Manager and Director, about the progress of research projects.

Provide advice on crime and criminal justice research, methodology and other current issues in the field to Departmental staff and other organisations.

Liaise with Bureau, Departmental and external individuals and agencies to ensure that research (particularly collaborative research) meets quality standards and time deadlines.

Collaborate with other Bureau researchers to produce timely, accurate research to inform policy on crime and criminal justice issues.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
Together with the Research Manager, plan each of the research projects to be conducted by the Senior Research Officer to ensure that research designs and statistical analyses are rigorous and capable of answering the research questions being addressed.

Devise a detailed work plan and associated timetable with the Research Manager for each of the projects conducted by the Senior Research Officer, and comply with these work plans and timetables.

Comply with the Bureau’s standards for checking data and for documentation of research projects.

Provide objective and balanced interpretations of data.

Ensure that all systems, policies and practices comply with Anti-discrimination and Occupational Health and Safety legislation and promote EEO, OH&S, Harassment Prevention, Code of Conduct, Ethical practices, Disability awareness and ATSI strategies in accordance with Government and departmental policies and strategies.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Tertiary qualifications in criminology, psychology, statistics, economics, epidemiology, or any other discipline with a strong statistical component

Demonstrated understanding of multivariate statistical analyses

Familiarity with statistical software packages (e.g. SPSS, SAS, Stata)

Ability to write research reports to a standard suitable for peer-reviewed publications

Good oral communication skills

Ability to communicate technical concepts to a non-technical audience

Ability to plan and organise work to meet deadlines for concurrent projects.

Craig Jones
Research Manager
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics & Research
GPO Box 6, Sydney NSW 2001
Ph +61 2 9231 9176
Fax +61 2 9231 9187