Publications

One of the AIC’s functions is disseminating new research findings, recognising that applied criminological research should inform policy, practice and community debate on issues of concern. The dissemination function ensures the AIC’s research is publicly available and easily understood, so that it informs policy and practice.

The AIC communicates new knowledge developed by AIC researchers and external authors. The AIC’s regular publications are the foundation of this. Research Reports and Trends & issues papers are subject to a rigorous peer-review process before they are accepted for publication. Drafts are also reviewed by senior research staff. All publications are then reviewed by the Deputy Director and edited to conform to AIC publishing style, promoting clear and understandable research. Due to the large volume of publications the AIC produces, these are generally designed, edited and typeset in-house.

A summary of reports published by the AIC in 2018–19 is presented in Table 5. Details of the publications are listed in appendices 1 and 2.

Website

The AIC has been a significant criminal justice publisher since the mid-1970s. During 2018–19 the AIC website attracted over 800,000 users, who accessed more than 1,490 publications. The number of page views during the reporting period was over two million, an increase on the year before.

Table 7 shows the AIC’s most popular publications based on page views. These demonstrate the importance and continuing relevance of the AIC’s extensive back catalogue of research, as a number of these reports were published over five years ago.

Media

The AIC’s media engagement is both proactive, triggered by publications and events, and reactive, when journalists request information or interviews on criminal justice topics. During 2018–19 there were 152 media contacts and 19 interviews.

Social media

At June 2019 the AIC had an online subscriber network of 35,176 people:

• 22,171 Facebook followers;
• 7,401 Twitter followers;
• 4,175 email subscribers; and
• 1,429 CriminologyTV YouTube subscribers.

CriminologyTV makes 342 AIC video files publicly available to both subscribers and non-subscribers worldwide, substantially expanding access to AIC products. These videos include lectures, keynote conference presentations, seminars and award ceremonies.