Policy and Politics: Two recent examples in Western Australia *

Abstract

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 Committee on Young Offenders and the Crime Research Centre (and the lessons learned therefrom in light of policy making decisions, both by the Labor Government which created them and its successor, the Liberal Government of Richard Court). The first was composed largely of high ranking judicial, police and bureaucratic members, high profile community members and skilled research staff. Its fate was sealed by its insistence on independence. The second is university-based with a statistical and research focus. Independently funded, it survives but what effect has it had? The author was at one time a member of the Committee and a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre.