Statistical Methods to Study the Effect of the 2014 Lockout Laws in Sydney – Dr Patricia Menéndez

Date:  Tuesday, 16 June 2015
Time: 6:00pm – 6.30pm: Refreshments
6:30pm – 7.30pm: Lecture
7:30pm – 8:00pm: Dinner (at a nearby restaurant)

Venue: Auditorium, Level 2, University of Technology, Sydney – Building 7, 638 Jones Street, Ultimo, NSW 2007

Dr Patricia Menéndez 
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

Statistical Methods to Study the Effect of the 2014 Lockout Laws in Sydney
 
Abstract: Following the history of fatal alcohol-related violence in the Kings Cross Entertainment Precinct in Sydney, many calls were made for tougher regulations on licensed premises. On the 21st of January 2014, the New South Wales State government announced new restrictions on licensed premises to curb alcohol related violence in the Kings Cross and Sydney CBD Entertainment Precincts.
We investigated the effects of the legislative reforms introduced in January 2014 using time series structural models. The data consist of monthly counts of non- domestic assaults in NSW between January 2009 and September 2014. In the evaluation, several regions in Sydney were considered to study the possibility of crime displacement or geographical diffusion of benefits as a result of the new reforms.
This talk aims to provide an insight into the statistical methodology used for this evaluation as well as to present the statistical results of the study.
 
Keywords: Lockouts, time series structural models, alcohol-related violence, Kings Cross, Sydney. 

Biography of Dr Patricia Menéndez:

Dr Patricia Menéndez is a mathematical statistician working at the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Patricia’s research interests are on time series and spatial analyses, computational statistical methods and statistical applications on crime research, genetics, and environmental problems.
Patricia discovered her passion for research during her research fellowship at Okayama University in Japan granted by the Japanese government which later led her to pursue her doctoral studies. After completing her PhD in 2009 at the ETH, Zurich in Switzerland, she went to Wageningen University (The Netherlands) as a postdoctoral fellow and after that held a visiting professorship at the Public University of Navarre in Spain.
In 2012 Patricia moved to Australia to work as a visiting researcher at the UNSW, after which she became a lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Queensland.

This public lecture is co-organised with the University of Technology, Sydney and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS).