Crime and Justice
CONTACT
Director
National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Melbourne
Telephone (03) 9615 7374
Facsimile (03) 9615 7372
Email: crime.justice@abs.gov.au
DESCRIPTION
The ABS compiles a range of statistics on crime and justice. These include selected categories of crime recorded by police, proceedings of higher criminal courts, statistics on corrective institutions as well as crime and safety in the home and community.
Data are collected from different sources, including administrative by-products and household surveys. In general, crime and justice statistics which are derived from administrative by-products refer to adults and do not contain information about their family circumstances. However, statistics are available on crimes recorded against children aged 0-14 and youth aged 14-19. The corrections and higher courts collections contain statistics on the small number of persons under 18 years who are processed through the adult justice system. Surveys on crime and safety are conducted in conjunction with the Monthly Population Survey and these provide demographic and family information on people aged 15 and above (Labour Force Survey).
TITLES
Recorded Crime, Australia (cat. no. 4510.0) - issued annually
Higher Criminal Courts, Australia (cat. no. 4513.0) - issued annually
Prisoners in Australia (cat. no. 4517.0) - issued annually
Crime and Safety, Australia (cat. no. 4509.0) - irregular
Crime and Safety, South Australia (cat. no. 4509.4)
Crime and Safety Survey, New South Wales (cat. no. 4509.1) - (victims aged 15-24)
Crime and Safety, Victoria (cat. no. 4509.2)
Crime Victims, Western Australia (cat. no. 4506.5)
Corrective Services, Australia (cat. no. 4512.0) - issued quarterly
Courts of Petty Sessions, Western Australia (cat. no. 4502.5) - issued annually
Occasional Paper: Review of Social and Labour Statistics - Criminal Justice (cat. no. 4170.0).
CONTENTS
The following section presents a brief summary of the contents of selected publications of crime and justice statistics.
Recorded Crime, Australia
Contains uniform national crime statistics relating to a selected range of offences recorded by police. The statistics provide indicators on the level and nature of recorded crime in Australia and can be used as a basis for measuring change over time. This publication covers children aged 0-9, 10-14 and 15-19 as victims of kidnapping/abduction, robbery, driving causing death, assault, blackmail/extortion, murder and attempted murder, manslaughter and sexual assault.
Statistics are compiled on a victim basis and measure the number of victims for each offence category rather than breaches of criminal law. This publication provides a breakdown of the offences by victim details (age of victim, sex of victim, and relationship of offender to victim). Data on type of location, use of weapon and outcome of investigation are also provided. (Source: Administrative by-product - police records).
Higher Criminal Courts, Australia
The Higher Criminal Courts deal with criminal cases involving serious charges, that is, those relating to indictable offences. This publication presents statistics on the sex, and age profiles of defendants, including data on the small proportion of juvenile offenders aged under 17 years who are processed in the adult court system. (Source Administrative by-product - Supreme and intermediate courts).
Prisoners in Australia
Provides information on the demographic and legal characteristics of prisoners such as age, sex, legal status and the nature of the offence(s) or charge(s) for which the person is in prison. In general, people remanded or sentenced to adult custody are aged 17 years and over in Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory or 18 years and over in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. People under 17 or 18 years (depending on the State or Territory) are treated as juveniles in Australian courts and are not remanded or sentenced to custody in adult prisons, other than in exceptional circumstances. The publication contains data on this small group including information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, who are sentenced to adult custody. (Source: administrative by-product - prison census).
Crime and Safety, Australia
Presents the results of household surveys about the level of victimisation in the community for selected offences. Information is available for individuals and households about their experience of selected crimes, whether these crimes were reported to police, and crime-related risk factors. The survey includes some information on demographic and family characteristics.
For crimes against people, in the 12 months prior to the survey, statistics are available on robbery and assault. For women aged 18 years and over, information is also available on sexual assault. For household crimes, statistics are available on break-ins to dwellings, attempted break-ins and motor vehicle thefts. Additional data from the national Crime and Safety Survey will be made available through standard tabulations, special tabulations and the statistical consultancy service. For users requiring more detailed information on family data, including family violence, special tabulations can be produced on request. (Source: ABS Monthly Population Survey).
HISTORICAL DATA
Some collections which contain statistics on crime and justice have been collected and disseminated by ABS since 1907. National collections have commenced as follows : Recorded Crime - 1993, Corrective Services - 1998, Higher Criminal Courts - 1995, and Prisoners - 1994. The last table of the Prisoners publication provides a historical summary which contains an 11 year series. The Causes of Death collection has included statistics on murder (homicide) since 1907. Prior to the commencement of uniform national collections each State and Territory published various collections on crime and justice statistics.
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