ABOUT THE CRIMINAL COURTS DATA DICTIONARY
INTRODUCTION
The National Criminal Courts data dictionary has been developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to improve the harmonisation of the ABS and Council of Australian Governments (COAG). The data dictionary provides definitions, classifications and standards for 27 data elements and data element concepts commonly used in criminal court statistical collections. It is intended that the data dictionary be available as a resource to other agencies to promote wider comparability in the collection and dissemination of Criminal Court information.
The first chapter contains information about the development of the data dictionary, including the development and the content of data elements and data element attributes. The second chapter contains information about how to use the data dictionary, including how to collect and use criminal courts data, how the data dictionary will be maintained, and issues for version 2. The third chapter presents the statistical standards for each of the data elements and data element concepts included in the data dictionary. Additional information to support the use of the data dictionary is provided in a number of appendices.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE DATA DICTIONARY
Definition of a data dictionary
A data dictionary is an agreed set of classifications and standards that is accepted as the authoritative source for a particular area of statistics. A data dictionary for criminal courts statistics provides a set of core definitions and data elements to enable the collection and reporting of uniform data in relation to the criminal courts in Australia.
Context
The data dictionary project is closely aligned with other NCCSU work projects that aim to improve the coverage, quality and use of criminal courts statistics. These include the development of Practitioner Manuals for data providers of higher criminal courts and Magistrates' Criminal Courts statistics, and the conduct of the Courts Improvement Project which resulted in a national report to the Productivity Commission and CAWG.
Outcomes
The main outcome sought through the compilation of this data dictionary is improved comparability of criminal courts statistics within and across criminal courts collections. The data dictionary defines a core set of data elements that are common across major criminal courts collections. Wherever possible, definitions accord with national and international protocols and standards. It is intended that the data dictionary will be available as a central reference point for administrative and survey collections in the criminal courts sector and will assist in improving reporting outcomes, in particular, the comparability of data.
Scope of the ABS and COAG collections
The ABS criminal courts collection currently collects and presents information relating to the criminal jurisdiction of the Supreme, intermediate (i.e. District/County) and Magistrates' courts in each state and territory. The COAG courts collection (also referred to as the Court Administration Data Collection) has a much broader scope including a number of other criminal courts and other types of courts (e.g. criminal appeals, children's, civil, family and coroner's). The current scope of harmonisation is therefore restricted to the subset of courts common to both collections - the non-appeal jurisdictions of the higher criminal courts and Magistrates' Criminal Courts in each state and territory. The following diagram visually represents the scope and overlap between the two collections.
The ABS Criminal Courts Collection
The national criminal courts collection conducted by the ABS provides information relating to the criminal jurisdiction of the higher courts (Supreme and intermediate courts) and Magistrates' Courts in each state and territory. The aim of the collection is to provide nationally comparable statistics on the characteristics of defendants dealt with by the criminal courts, including information on the offences and sentences associated with those defendants. Some general information on the management of court workloads is also provided.
The scope of the collection includes defendants finalised in the original jurisdiction of the higher criminal courts and Magistrates' Criminal Courts, in Australia, during the reference period 1 July to 30 June.
The COAG Criminal Courts Collection
The Review of Government Service Provision was established to provide information on the efficiency and effectiveness of Australian and State and Territory government services. The Review operates under the auspices of COAG and has a key function to develop objective and consistent data on the performance of government services, including justice services. These data are released annually in the Report on Government Services.
The focus on the Court administration chapter of the report is on the efficiency and effectiveness of the administration of the courts and not on the outcomes of the judicial process. Data providers are asked to count matters initiated and/or finalised within the reference period, 1 July to 30 June.
Purpose of the ABS and COAG collections
The focus of the COAG criminal courts collection is on the administration of the courts including workload and financial information, while the ABS criminal courts collection has a social theme, painting a picture of the characteristics of defendants, including information on the offences and sentence types associated with those defendants. Whilst the classifications and standards for both collections will be the same, the counting rules will be different. Therefore data produced from both collections will also be different. Any further alignment of the two collections will be reviewed in the future.
Application
The main application of the data dictionary will be for the harmonisation of the comparable scope of the ABS and COAG courts collections. However, there are other ways in which the data dictionary may be used. These applications include:
- Development of statistical collections (ABS and non-ABS);
- Establishing/re-designing databases using data dictionary metadata standards;
- Establishing input processing mechanisms which apply standard classifications to the collection, coding and storage of data; and
- Reporting of collection results applying standard classifications.
Relationship with ABS and COAG criminal courts collection manuals
The data dictionary underpins - rather than replaces - the current set of coding manuals specific to each of the ABS and COAG criminal courts collections. The data dictionary defines an agreed list of data items and their attributes (including classification structure, applicable counting units and counting rules), whilst the ABS and COAG manuals list which data items are required, the level of classificatory detail needed (with reference to the data dictionary), and the reference period and format the data should be provided in. Therefore, while it is envisaged that the data dictionary will result in the coding manuals reducing in size, the manuals will continue to provide the documentation necessary for the extraction and dissemination of courts data.
The data dictionary contains:
- Definitions;
- Classifications;
- Counting rules; and
- Collection methods.
The ABS and COAG criminal court collection manuals contain:
- The data items required and the level of detail;
- The counting units required (e.g. finalised defendant versus merged finalised defendant);
- Format of extract;
- Mappings;
- Quality assurance documentation; and
- Definitions, classifications and counting rules for data items outside the scope of the data dictionary, e.g. financial expenditure information in the COAG collection.
DATA ELEMENTS AND DATA ELEMENT CONCEPTS
There are three distinct metadata types relevant to the data dictionary:
- Data element - A data element is considered to be a basic unit of data of interest to an organisation. It is a unit of data for which the definition, identification, representation, and permissible values are specified by means of a set of attributes.
- Data element concept - A data element concept clarifies the concepts forming the basis of related data elements within the data dictionary. They have no reporting requirement but define the higher level concepts that many of the individual data elements describe.
- Derived data element - A derived data element is a unit of data that is created from the values of other data elements. It is derived by the use of some form of simple or complex calculation or by conversion from one coding system to another.
To derive a list of data elements and data element concepts for inclusion in the data dictionary, consideration has been given to the data items which are common across the ABS and COAG criminal court collections and the characteristics published in ABS and non-ABS court collections.
The data element concepts used in both the ABS and COAG criminal courts collections are:
- Active Pending Defendant
- Defendant
- Finalised Defendant
The data elements used in both the ABS and COAG criminal courts collections are:
- Court Level
- Date of Committal
- Date of Finalisation
- Date of Initiation
- Date of Registration
- Duration
- Method of Finalisation
- Method of Initiation
- State/Territory
The data elements used in the ABS criminal courts collection (some of which are used in non-ABS court collections) are:
- Age
- Committal Plea
- Court Location
- Date of Birth
- Date of Verdict
- Diversion
- Final Plea
- Indigenous Status
- Initial Plea
- Principal Offence
- Principal Sentence
- Sex
The data element concepts used in the ABS criminal courts collection (some of which are used in non-ABS court collections) are:
Additionally, the CPG agreed to include a data element concept which is fundamental to the COAG criminal court collection:
These data elements and concepts are presented in the data dictionary by characteristic type rather than alphabetically. This allows data elements and concepts with interrelationships to be grouped together. The presentation of data elements in the data dictionary is outlined below.
DATA ELEMENT ATTRIBUTES
The characteristics or attributes of the data elements/concepts are described in the data dictionary entry for that data element. Data element attributes provide definitions of the element, its context, provide classification and coding information and a range of other instructions. A review of existing data dictionaries by the NCCSU found a wide variety of choices in the attributes included.
The data elements contained in this data dictionary are presented in a format that is consistent with the ISO/IEC 11179 Specification and standardisation of data elements - the international standard relevant to the development of a data dictionary.
The parts of ISO/IEC 11179 considered by the NCCSU were:
ISO/IEC 11179-1: 1999 - Part 1: Framework for the specification and standardisation of data elements
ISO/IEC 11179-2: 2000 - Part 2: Classification of data elements
ISO/IEC 11179-3: 2003 - Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes
ISO/IEC 11179-4: 2004 - Part 4: Formulation of data definitions
ISO/IEC 11179-5: 1995 - Part 5: Naming and identification principles for data elements
The purpose of ISO/IEC 11179 is to give concrete guidance on the formulation and maintenance of discrete data element descriptions and semantic content (metadata) that shall be used to formulate data elements in a consistent, standard manner.
The final list of data element attributes chosen for use in this data dictionary are a subset of those specified in ISO/IEC 11179.
The attributes 'Guide for use' and 'Collection methods' were adapted from the National Health Data Dictionary produced by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare but have no direct counterpart in ISO/IEC 11179. It was decided to include these to assist in the clarification of issues relating to the classification and collection of the data elements.
Additionally, the attribute 'History' was adapted from the Dictionary of Standards for Education and Training Statistics produced by the ABS. This attribute is not specified in ISO/IEC 11179 but has been included to provide an overview of amendments to data elements/concepts.
The attributes applied to each data element are summarised below. Additional descriptive information about the data element attributes are provided in Appendix 1. The descriptions included in this dictionary are based on the definitions provided in ISO/IEC 11179 and in the other data dictionaries mentioned above.
Not all entries in the data dictionary will have information against all of the specified attributes and some will be presented in a more limited format. For example, representational attributes do not apply to data element concepts, as these items have no reporting requirement.
Some data elements in the data dictionary equate to single, well-defined elements for which established ABS standards exist. These data elements include Age, Sex and Indigenous Status. The data element attributes for these data elements are based on ABS standards, however, in some instances, deviations from the ABS standard (for example the data domain and output categories) have been necessary to extend the standard appropriately to the criminal courts. Where this occurs it has been noted within the applicable data attribute.
Print Page
Print All