Consultation paper: Improving recorded crime statistics for Victoria's Aboriginal community

The Crime Statistics Agency does not currently release recorded crime statistics relating to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status in our main releases due to concerns we have with high proportions of missing or unknown data based on self-identification. The agency has been exploring options for calculating a person's Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status, to try and potentially 'improve' the quality of recorded crime statistics relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people sufficiently so they can be used. These techniques generally involve using the values that are visible in the data, to 'fill in' the gaps where values are unknown. As the key principle is that everyone represented in these data should be able to self-identify as to whether they are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, it is crucial that the ethics of these methods and implications are transparent and acceptable to community.

We are therefore seeking your views as to which - if any - of these methods for calculating Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status in the recorded crime dataset is acceptable for use in producing our official recorded crime statistics for Victoria.

The Crime Statistics Agency are keen to not make important decisions about how we represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our statistics in a vacuum. We want to ensure that we reflect the views of community and end up with a result that is acceptable and of sufficient quality to be useful. Please provide us with your feedback about which - if any - of these methods you think are most appropriate for use.

The public consultation will close at 5PM 17 July 2016. We look forward to hearing your views.

Once we have collated responses we will be able to make a decision about whether any of the methods has been deemed broadly acceptable to respondents to the consultation. Should the method produce sufficient improvements in quality to make these data useful, we will seek to release recorded crime statistics about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status.

Written submission

The CSA can be reached by post at:

Chief Statistician
Crime Statistics Agency
GPO Box 4356
Melbourne Vic 3001

By e-mail

The CSA can be reached via email at info@crimestatistics.vic.gov.au (External link).

Author
Crime Statistics Agency, 2016
Publisher
Crime Statistics Agency
Date of Publication

 

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