Names of investigators/project team members
Dr Rebecca Glauert – Coordinating Principal Investigator
Professor Nick de Klerk
Professor Fiona Stanley
Dr Hannah Moore
Professor David Preen
Professor Elizabeth Geelhoed
Professor James Boyd
Mr Adrian Brown
Mr Sean Randall
A/Professor Anna Ferrante
Partner government agencies – WA Police, Department of Corrective Services, Department of the Attorney General, Department for Child Protection and Family Support, and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs
Project description
The Kids Research Institute Australia received funding from the Telethon Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund Strategic Initiatives to establish a whole-of-state Centre of Linked Data Analytics and Social Policy (CLASP). As part of CLASP, three data islands will be created in the areas of criminal justice, infectious diseases, and Aboriginal health and wellbeing. The first database to be created will be the Criminal Justice System Integrated Data Island (CJS-IDI), which will include a database of key strategic data items from each of the three justice agencies – the Department of the Attorney General, WA Police and the Department of Corrective Services, and the Department for Child Protection and Family Support, to be linked and de-identified using secure systems by the Centre for Data Linkage at Curtin University.
Currently, the WA criminal justice sector has no routine and complete way of linking core operational datasets for analysis, reporting or research purposes. This makes it difficult to undertake a range of tasks, such as investigating pathways through the justice system, measuring recidivism in more complex ways or determining the effectiveness of diversion and rehabilitation programs.
The integration of the justice datasets, and datasets from the Department for Child Protection and Family Support, will place the WA criminal justice centre at the forefront of effective information systems in Australia. The CLASP CJS-IDI will extend and enhance the capabilities of the Developmental Pathways Project and build upon its existing governance structure. The CJS-IDI will be updated periodically, and will enable research, analysis and reporting using a whole of justice dataset.
The purpose of the CJS-IDI is to create an integrated and accessible database containing unit-level de-identified data about individuals who come into contact with the WA criminal justice system. The island is intended to be securely and strictly managed, providing secure access to authorised and approved users. The CJS-IDI will routinely collect data from justice agencies and the Department for Child Protection and Family Support, process and link these data, and then make de-identified data available for research and policy use.
Plain language summary
The Kids Research Institute Australia was awarded funding from the Telethon Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund Strategic Initiatives to establish a whole-of-state Centre of Linked Data Analytics and Social Policy (CLASP). The goal of the project is to provide a framework for WA’s significant linked data assets to be contained in discrete, integrated ‘data islands’ that can be quickly accessed to meet the information needs of government and the research community, providing secure, streamlined access to linked, de-identified data and the ability to make more informed decisions to improve service delivery and policy formation. The intention is for several data islands to be created – criminal justice, infectious diseases, and Aboriginal health and wellbeing. The CLASP CJS-IDI will extend and enhance the capabilities of the Developmental Pathways Project and build upon its existing governance structure.
Funders of the projecT
Telethon Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund Strategic Initiative
External collaborators
Professor David Preen – The University of Western Australia
Professor Elizabeth Geelhoed – The University of Western Australia
A/Professor Anna Ferrante – Curtin University, Western Australia
Professor James Boyd – Curtin University, Western Australia
Mr Adrian Brown – Curtin University, Western Australia
Mr Sean Randall – Curtin University, Western Australia
Representatives from partner government agencies in WA – WA Police, Department of Corrective Services, Department of the Attorney General, Department for Child Protection and Family Support, and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs