1307.6 - Tasmanian State and Regional Indicators, Sep 2010 
Quality Declaration
Quality Declaration ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 29/10/2010
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More detailed statistics about Tasmania are available in Excel format from the Downloads page. HIGHER COURTS DEFENDANTS The following information relates to defendants who were adjudicated, that is finalised via a plea of guilty or a decision by a judge as to their guilt or innocence of the final charges. In 2008-09 in Tasmania, there were 531 defendants adjudicated by higher courts, an increase of 24.1% on the 428 defendants in 2007-08. The most common case characteristic was 'acts intended to cause injury' which represented 26.7% of total cases. The next most common case characteristics were 'illicit drug offences' (24.3%), 'robbery, extortion and related offences' (10.2%), and 'sexual assault and related offences' (9.2%).
RECORDED CRIME - OFFENDERS The following information is about the alleged offenders of crime incidents recorded by Tasmania Police. In 2008-09, Tasmania Police proceeded against 12,155 alleged offenders compared to 12,094 in 2007-08. Young people aged 10-19 years accounted for 32.7% of all offenders proceeded against, with a further 52.1% aged 20-39 years. The most common principal offences included: public order offences (28.8%), acts intended to cause injury (19.0%), illicit drug offences (14.8%), and theft and related offences (10.3%). During 2008-09, the majority (67.2%) of all offenders were proceeded against by Tasmania Police on a single occasion, with a further 14.7% proceeded against on two separate occasions.
In 2009 in Tasmania, there was a total of 407 sentenced prisoners, virtually unchanged from 408 in 2008. Of the total sentenced to detention, 35.6% were sentenced to under one year as were 35.6% who were sentenced from one to under five years, 11.1% to five and under ten years and 12.5% to ten years and over. In 2009, the median period of detention was 1.8 years compared to 2.0 years in 2008.
RECORDED CRIME - VICTIMS The following information counts victims of all the crime incidents recorded by Tasmania Police. Note that in this context, a victim can be a person, a premise, an organisation or a motor vehicle. In 2009 in Tasmania, there were 3,527 victims of assault, a 5.6% decline from 2008. At the same time there were 138 victims of sexual assault, a decline of 29.6% on 2008, and also 1,438 victims of motor vehicle theft, a decrease of 5.9%. By contrast the total number of victims of robbery was up by 22.2%, from 117 in 2008 to 143 in 2009. There were also 3,893 victims of unlawful entries with intent in 2009, an increase of 7.0% on the 2008 figure of 3,637. There were 13 victims of homicide and related offences, of which 9 were victims of murder and 4 victims of attempted murder.
PRISONER CHARACTERISTICS As at 30 June 2009 in Tasmania, the number of prisoners was 535, an increase of 3.9% from the 515 on 30 June 2008. Of all prisoners in 2009, females represented 8.0%, and Indigenous persons 12.3%. In 2009, 69.0% of all prisoners had a prior imprisonment record, while 23.9% of all prisoners were previously unsentenced. TASMANIAN OMBUDSMAN The Ombudsman's role is to investigate and help to resolve complaints about the administrative actions of government departments, councils and public authorities. In 2008-09, the Tasmanian Ombudsman received 86 complaints against local governments, an increase of 14.7% on the 75 complaints in 2007-08. Most of the complaints were against local governments in the Greater Hobart-Southern region (58), followed by Northern (25) and Mersey-Lyell (13). There were 331 complaints against the Tasmanian State Government in 2008-09, a 21.2% increase on the 273 in 2007-08. In 2008-09, of all the cases closed (457) by the Tasmanian Ombudsman,42.2% were declined. A further 31.3% of cases were included in the category of 'no defective administration' (cases resolved at either the preliminary inquiry stage or which proceeded through to an investigation). Another 15.8% of cases were 'discontinued' (cases that did not progress because the complainant did not provide additional information to identify the issue or complaint adequately), while a further 10.7% of cases were 'partly/fully substantiated' (complaints where the Ombudsman considered that the administrative action of the public authority was not appropriate or reasonable).
LEGAL AID The Legal Aid Commission provides legal services to the Tasmanian community through grants of legal aid, free legal advice and minor assistance, duty solicitor services, and community education and information. In 2009, there were 8,411 applications for legal assistance in Tasmania, a decrease of 3.3% on the 8,701 requests in 2008. The majority of the applications in 2009 were for criminal matters (64.5%). In 2009, the Legal Aid Commission approved 7,395 applications, a decrease of 5.7% on the number of cases approved in 2008. At the same time, 1,016 cases were refused, an increase of 18.1% from 2008.
More detailed statistics about Tasmania are available in Excel format from the Downloads page. SOURCES Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) (ABS cat. no. 1216.0) Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC) (ABS cat. no. 1234.0) Corrective Services, Australia (ABS cat. no. 4512.0) Criminal Courts, Australia (ABS cat. no. 4513.0) Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania Annual Reports 2004 to 2008 Ombudsman Tasmania Ombudsman Annual Report 2008-09 Prisoners in Australia (ABS cat. no. 4517.0) Recorded Crime - Offenders (ABS cat. no. 4519.0) Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia (ABS cat. no. 4510.0) Further information can also be found on the Crime and Justice Statistics Theme Page of the ABS website. Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.
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