Research demonstrated that people with and intellectual disability are over-represented in the criminal justice system, both as offenders and victims. Most of the relevant research has been compiled using prison populations. There is, however, a dearth of recent statistics about the numbers of people with an intellectual disability in contact with the police or the court system. The Commission was concerned to obtain some current statistics to verify whether over-representation occurs in the courts and to provide us with some guidance as to the likely numbers of people to be affected by the areas under consideration within this reference.

It was decided to focus on local courts because of the large numbers of accused persons appearing in those courts, the wide variety of represented and the fact that both minor and serious offfences are dealth with in the local courts.

This Report is one of two Research Reports produced under this reference, made possible by the grant from the Law Foundation of New South Wales. This grant enabled the Commission to engage, as a consultant, Susan Hayes, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Behavioural Sciences in Medicine in the University of Sydney. Professor Hayes is a leading authority on intellectual disability, has published widely in the area and has conducted a study of the prevalence of intellectual disability in New South Wales prisons. Professor Hayes was responsible for the design, implementation, coordination and analysis of the research study and prepared the report of the finding. The Commission also acknowledges the efforts of the field researchers.

Thsi Report would not have been possible without the assistance of the Chief Magistrate of the Local Courts of New South Wales, Mr Ian Pike, and of the Magistrates and Clerks of the court at the participating local courts, particularly Mr Nicholas Reimer, Mr peter Rheinberger, Mr Bill Carlton, Mr Ross Leader, Mr Allen Moore, Mr Sev Hill, Ms Sue Schreiner, Mr Michael McTeague, Mr Dennis Cullen and Ms Kerry Wood.

Additional assistance and comments on the contents of the Report came from the Commission, particularly David Weisbrot and Leonie Armstrong, and from Mark Ierace, an Honorary Consultant to the Commission. Secretarial assistance was provided by Karin Gylseth, Catherine Ferla and Susan Phillips, and Julie Freeman undertook the desk-top publishing.

Peter Hennessy

Executive Director