IN THIS ISSUE
ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION
This publication presents nationally comparable statistics relating to the criminal jurisdictions of the Higher (Supreme and Intermediate), Magistrates' and Children's Courts across Australia for the period 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014. Defendants include persons charged with criminal offences for each court level as well as organisations charged with criminal offences for the Higher and Magistrates' Courts. The statistics are based on administrative records held by state and territory agencies responsible for the administration of the courts and describe the characteristics of defendants, including information on the offences, case outcomes and sentences associated with those defendants. Selected time series data are also included where available.
CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE
Confidentiality
To minimise the risk of identifying individuals in aggregate statistics, a technique is used to randomly adjust cell values and summary variables. From the 2013-14 release, a technique called perturbation has been used. Perturbation involves small random adjustment of the statistics and is considered the most satisfactory technique for avoiding the release of identifiable statistics while maximising the range of information that can be released. These adjustments have a negligible impact on the underlying pattern of the statistics.
Perturbation has been applied to all data presented in this publication as well as data in the Criminal Courts collection from 2008-09 onwards. Previously, a different technique was used to confidentialise these data and therefore there may be small differences between historical data presented in this publication and those published in previous issues of this publication. Readers are advised to use the year on year comparisons in the Downloads tab of this publication, rather than directly comparing these data to previous editions.
Further information is available in the Explanatory Notes, paragraphs 97-99.
Changes to publication tables
Consolidation and rationalisation of outputs since the 2012-13 Criminal Courts release has reduced the number of publication tables from 59 to 47. This process has resulted in minimal loss of published data. A complete table concordance between the 2012-13 publication tables and the current 2013-14 publication tables is available under the Downloads tab.
The most notable changes are summarised below:
- mean and median age have been added to the summary tables;
- more detailed breakdown of principal sentence is presented in the national summary and Indigenous status tables;
- time series data for Indigenous status are presented by court level instead of by sex to facilitate publishing Indigenous status data for limited court levels;
- state and territory summary tables are presented by both court level and time series (previously separate tables);
- sentence length and fine amount ranges have been consolidated in the sentence length and fine amount data cube; and
- mean and median sentence length and fine amount are no longer presented by court level.
DATA CONSISTENCY
The statistics in this publication are sourced from the national Criminal Courts collection conducted by the ABS and have been compiled according to national standards in order to maximise consistency and comparability between the states and territories. The Explanatory Notes, Appendices and Glossary provide detailed information on the data sources, counting rules, terminology, classifications and other technical aspects associated with these statistics.
ROUNDING
Proportions and percentages cited in the publication text have been rounded up/down to the nearest whole number.
INFORMATION ON ABS CRIME AND JUSTICE STATISTICS
For more information about ABS publications relating to crime and justice statistics, refer to the Related Information tab.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The ABS acknowledges the valuable contribution of the Board of Management of the National Criminal Courts Statistics Unit, the National Criminal Courts Statistics Advisory Group, the Court Practitioners' Group and the staff of the various agencies that provide the data presented in this publication.
INQUIRIES
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070, or email client.services@abs.gov.au. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.
Quality Declaration 
Print Page
Print All