Pre-sentence reports (PSRs) provide information to courts on an individual’s background, circumstances, risks, needs and plans. Research has found that PSRs focus heavily on risk of recidivism, while identification of prosocial cultural and community factors is limited. This publication seeks to describe the language and sentiment in these reports.
PSRs written for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people sentenced by the mainstream County Court of Victoria and the Koori Court Division of the County Court of Victoria were studied. Findings indicate that risk related words are more prevalent than words associated with strengths and culture in PSRs submitted to both courts. While the frequency of positive and negative sentiment was low in PSRs for both courts, those for the Koori Court were more positive in sentiment.
©Australian Institute of Criminology 2022 The Australian Institute of Criminology encourages the use of information published on this website. The Commonwealth of Australia owns the copyright in all material produced by the Australian Institute of Criminology. All the material on this website is provided under the latest Creation Commons Attribution licence, with the exception of: the Commonwealth Coat of Arms content supplied by third parties, including photographs, logos, drawings and written descriptions of patents and designs materials protected by a trademark other materials such as publications available via this website which have their own copyright permissions.