The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR), also known as NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, is an
agency
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Organizations
* Institution, governmental or others
** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients
** Employment agency, a business that ...
of the
Department of Communities and Justice responsible for research into crime and
criminal justice and evaluation of the initiatives designed to reduce crime and reoffending in the state of
New South Wales,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Management and functions
BOCSAR was established in 1969.
The executive director of BOCSAR since July 2019 is Jackie Fitzgerald.
[ She took over from Don Weatherburn ]PSM
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* Palest ...
, who spent over 30 years in the position.
The Bureau is responsible for identifying factors affecting the distribution and frequency of crime and the effectiveness of the NSW criminal justice system, and for making this information available to its clients.[
It develops and maintains statistical databases on crime and criminal justice in NSW, monitors trends in crime and criminal justice, and also conducts research on crime and criminal justice issues and problems.][
]
Statistical information publicly available
Statistical information and various publications of the Bureau are accessible by the public.[
Information about crime that is typically stored in the databases includes:][
* The type of offence committed
* Time and location of the offence
* The age, gender, plea, outcome of court appearance and penalty (in the cases of persons charged with criminal offences who appear before the courts)
Aggregated data can answer questions such as which areas have high reported crime rates, how many people are charged with a specific offence, or what penalties are imposed for specific offences.][
]
In the news
In September 2018, then director Weatherburn admitted the Bureau was at fault for releasing misleading drug detection results. Figures in some cases were doubled, after BOCSAR had mistakenly added positive results to searches by NSW Police. However errors like this one have been extremely rare.
In early 2019, Weatherburn announced a new BOCSAR review of circle sentencing (a process which puts Aboriginal
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* Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area
*One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...
adult offender
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*A criminal, one who commits a criminal offense
* ''Offender'' (film), a 2012 British action film
* ''Offenders'' (2017 film), a Serbian drama film
*Offenders (comics), a Marvel Comics team
* ''The Off ...
s before a circle of elder
An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority.
Elder or elders may refer to:
Positions Administrative
* Elder (administrative title), a position of authority
Cultural
* North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and tr ...
s, members of the community, police and the judiciary, rather than a traditional courtroom), with results due in 2020. The previous one had been published in 2008.
See also
*Government of New South Wales
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...
* List of New South Wales government agencies
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Government agencies of New South Wales
Crime in New South Wales