POLICY AND POLITICS - 2 RECENT EXAMPLES IN WESTERN-AUSTRALIA

In a state known for consistently high incarceration rates, especially of Aboriginal people, the Labor governments of the 1980s created two criminologically based research or advisory bodies. The paper looks at the background and history of each - the State Government Advisory Co mmittee on Young Offenders and the Crime Research Centre (and the less ons learned therefrom in light of policy making decisions, both by the Labor Government which created them and its successor, the Liberal Go vernment of Richard Court). The first was composed largely of high ran king judicial, police and bureaucratic members, high profile community members and skilled research staff. its fate was sealed by its insist ence on independence. The second is university-based with a statistica l and research focus. Independently funded, if survives but what effec t has if had? The author was at one time a member of the Committee and a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre.