AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

TOTAL OFFENDERS

The Australian Capital Territory had the lowest number of offenders as well as the lowest offender rate of all states and territories in 2015–16. For the 2015–16 reference period:

• There were 2,867 offenders in the Australian Capital Territory, which was an increase of 5% (or 125 offenders) from 2014–15.
• The offender rate increased by 3% from 815 offenders in 2014–15 to 841 offenders per 100,000 persons in 2015–16. (Table 6)

SEX

In 2015–16, the Australian Capital Territory had the highest proportion of male offenders across all states and territories at 81% (or 2,320 offenders).

The male offender rate in the Australian Capital Territory for 2015–16 was 1,380 offenders per 100,000 males.

For the same period, the female offender rate in the Australian Capital Territory was 317 offenders per 100,000 females. This was a 2% increase in the female offender rate from 2014–15. However, this represented a 45% decline in the rate of female offenders since the start of the time series in 2008–09. (Tables 8–15)


PRINCIPAL OFFENCE

In 2015–16 the four most common principal offences in the Australian Capital Territory were:

• Acts intended to cause injury (24%, or 697 offenders)
• Public order offences (21%, or 594 offenders)
• Illicit drug offences (11%, or 317 offenders)
• Theft (11% or 316 offenders)

The number of offenders of Acts intended to cause injury increased by 29% (or 158 offenders) from 2014–15 to 697 offenders in 2015–16. The offender rate increased from 160 offenders in 2014–15 to 205 offenders per 100,000 persons.

The number of offenders of Public order offences decreased by 15% (or 105 offenders) from 2014–15 to total 594 offenders in 2015–16.

The Australian Capital Territory had the largest percentage decrease in offenders of Illicit drug offences across all states and territories. The number of offenders of Illicit drug offences decreased by 14% (or 53 offenders) from 2014–15 to 317 offenders in 2015–16. (Table 6)


YOUTH OFFENDERS

Between 2014–15 and 2015–16, the number of youth offenders increased by 17% (or 61 offenders) to a total of 416. This was the first increase in the number of youth offenders in the Australian Capital Territory since 2010–11.

The youth offender rate increased by 15% from 1,022 in 2014–15 to 1,176 offenders per 100,000 persons aged 10–17 years. (Table 19)


REPEAT OFFENDERS

Of all selected states and territories, the Australian Capital Territory had the highest proportion of offenders proceeded against only once in 2015–16, at 85% (or 2,428 offenders). In other selected states and territories this proportion ranged between 66% and 82%. (Table 16)


POLICE PROCEEDINGS

In 2015–16, the total number of police proceedings in the Australian Capital Territory increased by 7% (or 221 proceedings) from 2014–15 to 3,568 proceedings in 2015–16.

Court actions increased by 16% (or 332 proceedings) since 2014–15 to 2,435 proceedings for 2015–16. This was the largest percentage increase in court actions in comparison to the other states and territories for which proceedings data were available. (Tables 26–31)

For further information, refer to the other chapters of this publication, or contact the National Information Referral Service on 1300 135 070. When reporting ABS statistics, please attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) as the source.