Project Leader
PROFESSOR S. CAROLINE TAYLOR
Hello and
welcome to the Policing Just Outcomes Project website.
This 5 year project is the result of an Australian
Research Council Grant between Edith Cowan University
and Victoria Police, with the University of Tasmania
as a collaborating partner.Sexual assault is a serious crime affecting 1 in 5 Australian women, as well as children and adult males. Recent Australian reports have highlighted the health burden suffered by sexual assault victims as well as the financial burden that affects both victims and the community as a whole. Across the globe, sexual violence and violence against women are serious problems that require an urgent and unremitting response from governments and communities.
Victoria Police have taken a social leadership role in addressing the criminal justice response to victim/survivors of sexual assault. Under the leadership of Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Simon Overland, and former Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon, sexual offences form a key portfolio within Victoria Police efforts to improve responses to crime, through best-practice and evidence-based policing models to advance the rights of and effectively support victims of sexual assault.
This project is a key development in this undertaking. Working in partnership with Victoria Police, researchers are comprehensively examining and analysing police responses to, and management of, reports of adult sexual offences. The project will build research knowledge of the policing of sexual violence. This knowledge will underpin the identification and development of bench-mark competencies and a best-practice model for responding to adult sexual assault. Such a model will have the capacity to increase victim confidence in reporting sexual crimes and generate higher prosecution outcomes.
The project team consists of academics and researchers from the Edith Cowan University and Victoria Police. Details of our principal researchers and the rest of the project team can be found on the 'team' page of this website.
This website will contain regular, appropriate updates about the project and to assist those wanting information or help, this website has an information page regarding services for those affected by sexual violence.
Every good wish
S. Caroline Taylor
Project Leader
