Allan Borowski

Indigenous Participation in Sentencing Young Offenders: Findings from an Evaluation of the Children's Koori Court of Victoria

This article reports on some of the major findings of the evaluation of the Childrens Koori Court of Victoria—the first legislated effort to involve the Indigenous community in the sentencing of young people as a strategy of reducing their overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system. This court is presided over by a Magistrate sitting with two Koori Elders or Respected Persons in what is solely a sentencing court. The outcome component of the evaluation focussed on the 62 Koori defendants who appeared before the court in the first two years of its operation (2005–07) and who were tracked for between 6 and 30 months. The evaluation found low rates of failure-to-appear and breaches of court orders. Just under 60 per cent subsequently reappeared in a court and had their charges proven. In most cases, however, the principal re-offence was either less serious or no more serious than the one that had brought them before the Childrens Koori Court. This recidivism rate was within the realm of what was expected given the highly disadvantaged background of the defendants and their established offending histories. Significant reductions in Indigenous juvenile crime will require major structural change.

Israel's Long-Term Care Insurance Law After a Decade of Implementation

ABSTRACT Israels Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) law has been in effect for a decade. It is timely to review the effects of this legislation with a view to identifying possible directions for reform and lessons for other countries considering the introduction of a similar social insurance scheme. The paper considers the laws effects in terms of the size and characteristics of the beneficiary population, the coverage of the scheme, its financial standing, the rate of institutionalization of the elderly, the caregiving burden, the service delivery system, and the overall scope of long-term care services for the aged. Israels experience has lessons for financing arrangements, target efficiency, service delivery arrangements, and the construction of the burden of care.

Economic Security in Retirement: Reshaping the Public-Private Pension Mix

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the dramatic shift in pension types currently occurring in the United States and elsewhere. A dramatic change has occurred in the United States pension mix. In addition to the impact of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) on defined benefit (DB) plans, there is the impact of 401(k) plans. Under the Revenue Act of 1978, section 401(k),employees are permitted to make tax-deferred contributions to an employer-sponsored plan. This new section encourages employers to create defined contribution (DC) plans. Many plans are profit-sharing plans or voluntary-employee-contribution plans with no employer contribution. The annual dollar contributions that can be made by employees into 401(k) plans are limited by law. Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) were enacted as part of ERISA. In addition, the 1974 pension reform legislation also liberalized contributions to retirement plans for the self-employed. Both postpone taxes on contributions and investment returns.

In Courtroom 7— The Children’s Koori Court at Work: Findings From an Evaluation

This article reports some of the findings of an evaluation of the Children’s Koori Court (CKC)—the first legislated effort in Australia to involve the Indigenous community in the sentencing of young Aboriginal offenders as a strategy for reducing their overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system. A prominent feature of this court of summary jurisdiction is that the presiding magistrate, while remaining the sentencing authority, is assisted by Aboriginal Elders. This article focuses on the evaluation findings that were derived from observations of the CKC in action. They indicate that the operational objective of cultural responsiveness was realized. They also point to realization of the community-building goal—fostering Indigenous ownership of the administration of the law. Little slippage was found between the CKC’s design and operation, although some areas of improvement were identified. Nevertheless, the scope for the CKC by itself to significantly reduce overrepresentation is limited.

Whither Australia's Children's Courts? Findings of the National Assessment of Australia's Children's Courts

The Children’s Court is a critical social institution that decides important legal and social issues relating to children and families. This article reports the findings of a large national study which canvassed the views of judicial officers and other key stakeholders in each of Australia’s eight States and Territories concerning the court’s contemporary status and challenges and future reform directions with a view to informing current policy debates and deliberations. It draws together the major themes that emerged from the analysis of data derived from eight parallel sub-studies conducted concurrently which together comprised the national study. The findings point to a range of changes and underscore the importance of adequately resourcing the courts and the youth justice and child protection systems.

Magistrates' Perspectives on the Criminal Division of the Children's Court of Victoria

Abstract The Childrens Court is a critical social institution and important forum of social work practice. It decides important legal and social issues relating to children and families. This article reports the findings of a study of the views of Victorias Childrens Court magistrates on the current status and challenges faced by the Childrens Court as well as possible reforms that have recently been canvassed in Australia and overseas. This study was part of a larger “national assessment” of Australias Childrens Courts. The focus of this article is the Courts criminal jurisdiction. The findings point to concrete directions for change, for example, in aspects of its inputs and throughputs. In addition, the magistrates supported a shift in the Courts orientation to that of a therapeutic, jurisprudence-informed, problem-solving court. Findings also point to the need for research on the understanding of court processes and decisions by defendants and their families.

Danger of strong causal reasoning in juvenile justice policy and practice

Policy responses to social problems are shaped, among other things, by understandings of their causes. Strong causal reasoning, however, poses the danger of unsuccessful program outcomes where ‘weak’ theories are uncritically adopted to inform program design. This article describes this danger in the field of juvenile crime and corrections where theory development remains wanting. It also focuses on the findings of meta-analyses of juvenile correctional programs as providing scope for strengthening explanations for juvenile crime by inductive means of theory building.

Older Workers and the Work-Leisure Choice: The causes of early retirement in Australia

Retirement is a relatively recent social phenomenon. Early retirement is an even more recent one. This article traces the emergence of early retirement in Australia. While a host of individual factors may enter into the retirement decision, the intent of this article is to show how complex institutional factors have played an important role in producing high levels of early retirement. Thus, this article reflects a political economy perspective on ageing, a perspective which demands that consideration be given to the role of institutional arrangements in shaping the prevailing retirement pattern and, indeed, other problems confronting the elderly.

Australia's Children's Courts: An assessment of the status of and challenges facing the child welfare jurisdiction in Victoria

This article reports the findings of a study of the views of Victorias Childrens Court magistrates on the current status and challenges faced by the Childrens Court as well as proposals for reform that have recently been canvassed in Australia and overseas. This study was part of a larger “national assessment” of Australias Childrens Courts. The Childrens Court is a key social institution whose legal decision-making has major social consequences for children and families. This paper reports on the findings of a study which examined the courts contemporary status and challenges from the perspective of judicial officers and other stakeholders; it sought also their views about their degree of support for a range of possible reforms. The focus of this article is on the Courts child welfare jurisdiction which hears child protection matters brought before the Court by the statutory child protection service. This study was part of a larger national assessment of Australias eight state and territory Childrens Courts. The findings point to support for change in the approach to, and management of, child protection matters, within a more problem-solving court. Findings also point to the need for research on the understanding of court processes and decisions by parents and families.

A Portrait of Australia’s Children’s Courts: Findings of a National Assessment

The Children’s Court is a critical social institution that decides important legal and social issues relating to children and families. This chapter reports the findings of a national study which canvassed the views of judicial officers and other key stakeholders in each of Australia’s eight States and Territories concerning the court’s contemporary status and challenges and future reform directions with a view to informing current policy debates and deliberations. It draws together the major themes that emerged from the analysis of data gathered from study participants in eight separate but parallel sub-studies conducted concurrently which together comprised the national study. Data were gathered in metropolitan and regional (and, in the larger States and Territories, remote) locations across Australia. The chapter provides an overview of Australia’s Children’s Courts before presenting the major findings. The national findings point to the need, for example, for additional resources for the court and the youth justice and child protection systems, for further training of courtroom personnel, for greater clarity about the role of lawyers, for the greater use of Indigenous sentencing courts and circles and for raising the lower age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 years. Two further prominent findings were concern about the underutilization of bail in general and in relation to Indigenous youth in particular and support for the broader use by Children’s Courts of the therapeutic jurisprudence-oriented problem-solving approaches already found in some other Australian courts. In conclusion, the chapter points to the underinvestment in Children’s Courts. While the inadequacy of resources is a common refrain across the public sector, in some jurisdictions the dearth of resources has placed the Children’s Court at risk of becoming a meaningless institution in the absence of the wherewithal to achieve its mandate.