4519.0 - Recorded Crime - Offenders, 2012-13 
Quality Declaration
Quality Declaration ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 27/02/2014
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EXPLANATORY NOTES DATA SOURCE 2 Statistics in this publication are derived from information about offenders collected by the ABS from administrative records held by the state and territory police agencies. SCOPE 3 The scope of the collection includes all offenders, aged 10 years and over, who have been proceeded against by police during the reference period. 4 All criminal offences where police agencies have the authority to take legal action against an individual are included, with the exception of those outlined in paragraphs 5-6. Depending on the type of offence committed, police will either initiate a court or non-court action.
Exclusions 5 The scope excludes the following:
6 Due to quality and/or comparability issues, or an inability to supply data to the ABS, the statistics presented in this publication exclude the following:
REFERENCE PERIOD 7 The statistics in this collection relate to offenders proceeded against by police during the reference period 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013. COUNTING METHODOLOGY 8 The main counting unit for this collection is the offender. 9 The following information provides an explanation as to how offenders and police proceedings are treated and counted in this collection. Date of action 10 Data are compiled on the basis of the date that police initiated action, or proceeded against, an offender (e.g. the date the offender was charged, the date the offender was cautioned, etc.). The date the offender was proceeded against by police may not be the date when the offence occurred, or the date when the offender came to the attention of police. In some jurisdictions the data may reflect the date of record creation rather than date of action; however, this does not have a significant impact on the comparability of data across jurisdictions for offenders as there are no major lags between the two dates. Offender counts 11 For the offender population, an offender is only counted once irrespective of how many offences they may have committed within the same incident or how many times they were dealt with by police during the reference period. All methods of proceeding are included in these counts (i.e. court and non-court actions). Police proceeding counts 12 For the police proceeding population, an offender may be counted more than once if proceeded against on separate occasions by police during the reference period. Data are presented for both court and non-court proceedings. Principal offence 13 Offence information presented in this publication relates to the principal offence allegedly committed by an individual offender during the reference period. These statistics are not designed to provide a count of the total number of individual offences that come to the attention of police. 14 For the offender counts, where a single offence is processed by police on a single date, the offender is assigned that offence as their principal offence. Where multiple offences are committed within the same incident on a single date by an offender, the offender is assigned a principal offence using the ABS National Offence Index (NOI). For more information about the NOI refer to paragraph 47. Offenders proceeded against by police on more than one occasion in the reference period are also assigned a principal offence on this same basis. 15 For the police proceeding counts, offenders who are proceeded against more than once in the reference period are assigned a principal offence for each separate date of police action. The following diagram provides an illustration of the assigning of a principal offence and the resulting counts for both populations.
OFFENDER RATES 17 Offender rates are expressed as the number of offenders per 100,000 of the ABS Estimated Resident Population (ERP). This method derives what are sometimes referred to as "crude rates". These rates generally accord with international and state and territory practice, and enable the comparison of the extent and type of offending across the individual states and territories, as well as a comparison over time. 18 Rates for the offender population are calculated using the ERP as at the midpoint of the reference period (eg. 31 December 2012 for the 2012-13 reference period). 19 The ERP used in the calculation of these rates are for persons aged 10 years and over for all states and territories. Where rates are presented for an age group or a single year of age, the ERP used in the calculation of the rates refers to the relevant age group or single year of age. 20 In June 2013, the ABS 'recast' the historical ERP data from September 1991 to June 2011, as a response to a methodological improvement in the Census Post Enumeration Survey. As a result, the rates per 100,000 adult persons (excluding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rates) in this publication have been recast and all now use final ERP data based on the 2011 Census of Population and Housing. 21 ERP estimates and projections applied for the Australian Capital Territory exclude Jervis Bay Territory. All estimates and projections for Australia exclude the external territories of Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands. 22 For more information on the ERP, see Australian Demographic Statistics, June quarter, 2013 (cat. no. 3101.0). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offender rates 23 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offender rates are expressed per 100,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population aged 10 years and over. The offender rates presented in this issue for reference periods 2008-09 to 2012-13 are derived from Series B projections of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population from the ABS Experimental Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 1991 to 2021 (cat. no. 3238.0). 24 Series B is one of two main projection series (Series A and B) that have been published for the years 2007 to 2021. Both of these series assume an annual decline of 0.5% in fertility rates; an annual increase of 1% in paternity rates; constant interstate migration at levels observed in the 2006 Census; and zero net overseas migration with no arrivals and no departures. Two different assumptions were made about future Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy at birth for Australia:
25 The population projections are as at 30 June at the end of the reference period. 26 These projections are based on data from the 2006 Census of Population and Housing and supersede the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander projections data used for the calculation of offender rates in the 2007-08 issue of this publication. Final estimated population data and projections for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population based on the 2011 Census of Population and Housing data will not be available until April 2014, and will be incorporated in the 2013-14 issue of this publication. 27 Rates for the non-Indigenous population are calculated using the total ERP of persons aged 10 years and over for each state or territory minus the projected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population aged 10 years and over. Age standardisation of offender rates 28 Age standardisation is a statistical method that adjusts crude rates to account for age differences between study populations. 29 There are differences in the age distributions between Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous populations, with the former having a much younger population. In 2001, the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 18 years and over was 55%, compared with 76% of non-Indigenous people (and 75% of the total Australian population). The diagram below illustrates the differences in age distributions. 30 ESTIMATED RESIDENT POPULATION, AUSTRALIA - 30 JUNE 2001 31 Due to the differing age profiles, using crude rates to examine differences between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous populations may lead to erroneous conclusions being drawn about variables that are correlated with age. 32 By making comparisons across age groups, we know that offender rates decrease in older age groups, that is, that the offender rate is correlated with age. If we compare overall offender rates between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous persons, it is likely that the offender rate in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population will be higher because of the larger proportion of young people in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. Therefore, age standardised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous offender rates have been presented in Table 16. Ratios of the rates are also included in these tables. 33 The standard population against which each population is age standardised is the total Australian Estimated Resident Population at 30 June 2001. The standard population is revised every twenty five years; the next revision will be based on final data from the 2026 Census of Population and Housing. ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER OFFENDERS 34 This publication only presents data about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders for New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory, for the reference periods 2008-09 to 2012-13. Based on ABS assessment, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders data for other jurisdictions are not of sufficient quality and/or do not meet ABS standards for self-identification for national reporting in 2012-13. 35 As the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status of an offender is based on self-identification by the individual who comes into contact with police, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identification is difficult to ascertain where police proceed by way of a penalty notice as this method does not usually provide an opportunity for police to ask individuals to self-identify. The proportion of all offenders proceeded against by police by way of a penalty notice during 2012-13 was:
36 Given the high levels of 'not stated' Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status for offenders proceeded against by a penalty notice, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status data in this publication excludes penalty notices. For 2012-13, the impact of removing penalty notices on the proportion of 'not stated' values for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status was as follows:
37 The proportion of offenders with a 'not stated' Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status varies by offence type.
38 The use of penalty notices by police is most prevalent for Public order offences, Illicit drug offences, Offences against justice and Miscellaneous offences. The removal of those offenders who were proceeded against via a penalty notice results in reduced offender counts and rates for these four offence divisions in particular. Total Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander counts and rates are also affected by the removal of penalty notices where there is a known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status. 39 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status data are not received for offenders issued with Cannabis Expiation Notices (CENs) in South Australia. This is the reason for the high proportion of offenders with an unknown Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status for Illicit drug offences in South Australia. CLASSIFICATIONS 40 The national classifications used to collect and produce data about offenders are:
Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC), 2011 41 ANZSOC provides a uniform national framework for classifying offences across Australia for statistical purposes. The classification is a hierarchical structure allowing for varying degrees of detail to be published depending on the level of detail in the source information. Associated with each classification are coding rules which ensure that the counting of information is consistent across states and territories. 42 An offence classification was first developed in this format in 1997 called the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC). A second edition of the ASOC was released in 2008 which contained updates to improve coverage to cater for offences of emerging importance; increase relevance and usability; and maintain comparability and continuity. In 2011, the offence classification was updated from the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC) to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC); however changes were not made to the content of the classification. For further information about ANZSOC refer to Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification, 2011 (cat. no. 1234.0). 43 The offence information presented in this issue for the reference periods 2008-09 to 2012-13 is based on the 2011 version of ANZSOC. Data presented in the 2007-08 issue of this publication are based on ASOC 1997 and are not comparable. 44 For ease of reading, some ANZSOC offence terms have been abbreviated throughout this publication. The term 'and related offences' has been omitted from the following ANZSOC offence names:
45 In addition, the following ANZSOC offence terms have been abbreviated as follows:
46 For further information about ANZSOC offence classifications, refer to Appendix 1 and the Glossary. National Offence Index (NOI), 2009 47 The NOI (published in National Offence Index, 2009 (cat. no. 1234.0.55.001)) is a tool which provides an ordinal ranking of offence categories in ANZSOC according to perceived seriousness in order to determine a principal offence. The purpose of NOI is to enable the representation of an offender by a single offence in instances where multiple offences occur within the same incident or where offenders are proceeded against by police on more than one occasion in the reference period. Refer to Appendix 2 for a copy of the NOI. Method of Proceeding Classification 48 The method of proceeding describes the type of legal action (court or non-court) initiated by police against a person as a result of an investigation of an offence(s). The type of legal action may change as further investigation is undertaken by police. Not all changes made during the reference period may be reflected in this collection. The method of proceeding classification is a hierarchical classification. For detailed information about the classification refer to Appendix 3. For information about the counting methodology used for methods of proceeding refer to paragraph 16. DATA COMPARABILITY 49 National offender statistics are compiled in order to maximise comparability across states and territories. This collection has been designed to facilitate comparisons of states and territories through the application of common national statistical standards and counting rules. However, some legislative and processing differences remain. The following information highlights those processes unique to a jurisdiction that may have had an impact on the data for this collection. This may include differences in recording practices, legislation or policy to combat particular types of crime. New South Wales 50 For the 2011-12 issue of this publication, data for offenders proceeded against under the NSW Young Offenders Act 1997 were not able to be provided to the ABS, and were not included in the data presented for New South Wales. In October 2013, however, an amendment to the Act was passed through NSW Parliament. The amendment allows data for offenders proceeded against under the NSW Young Offenders Act 1997 to be provided to the ABS. Data for these offenders have been included in this issue for the reference periods 2008-09 to 2012-13. As a consequence, NSW data for young offenders are now on a consistent basis to the other states and territories. 51 Verbal Warning and Compliance Notice were two non-court proceedings included for the first time in 2009-10. They relate mainly to licensing enforcement (i.e. liquor, security industry, firearms). The Verbal Warning is a less formal process which informs the person that some breach(es) of regulations need to be corrected. The Compliance Notice is a written warning with a stipulated time period within which the breach(es) must be corrected. 52 From September 2011, the offence 'continue intoxicated and disorderly' was added to the list of offences for which a penalty notice may be issued. Victoria 53 Prior to 2009-10, data for most Victorian Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) were not available, as data were collected and maintained by a third party and not by Victoria Police. As a result, offender counts and rates for Victoria and Australia were underestimated. PINs data were supplied for the first time in the 2009-10 cycle for both 2008-09 and 2009-10 and have been provided for subsequent years. Caution should be used with comparing the 2009-10 and subsequent publications with previous versions. 54 In July 2008 a trial Infringement Notice Project commenced in Victoria to allow the following offences to be dealt with by police using a penalty/infringement notice:
The trial is ongoing for offences 1 and 2 above, while penalty notices can now be issued for the remaining offences. 55 The Crimes (Family Violence) Act was repealed on 8 December 2008 and replaced by the Family Violence Protection Act which allowed for easier and broader prosecution of family violence orders. This resulted in increases in the number of breaches (ANZSOC Division 15). Queensland 56 For Public order offences, in comparison with other states and territories, Queensland Police make greater use of arrest, summons, cautions, and notices to appear as an action against an offender, and only limited use of penalty notices. This results in Queensland having the highest proportion of overall proceedings which are police-initiated court actions. 57 The issuing of infringement notices or 'e-ticketing' by Queensland Police for public nuisance offences commenced from 8 November 2010. These offences include: public nuisance, public urination, obstruct police officer (in relation to the aforementioned public nuisance or public urination) and contravene requirement of a police officer (in relation to stating correct name and address regarding the above). 58 Queensland has a relatively high number of unique offenders with an unknown principal offence. This is due to the Queensland Police offender system containing reported offence details which are quite broad in their description. Where this occurs the offence may not be able to be coded to ANZSOC, resulting in the principal offence being listed as "unknown". 59 In 2012-13, improvements in recording practices led to a decrease in the number of offenders with a 'not stated' or unknown Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status. Between 2011-12 and 2012-13, the number of offenders with an unknown Indigenous status decreased by 43% or 2,142 offenders (excluding offenders with a principal method of proceeding of penalty notice). This decrease in the number of unknowns has contributed to increases in both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous offender populations. Caution should be used when analysing year to year movements in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander statistics. South Australia 60 Caution should be exercised when interpreting data on counts of offenders and proceedings with a principal offence of Illicit drug offences for South Australia as the data may be overstated. Data relating to offenders issued with Cannabis Expiation Notices (CENs) and drug diversions are stored on separate infringement databases and this information cannot be linked to other databases that store information about offenders. As the databases cannot be linked, if an offender has committed an offence in addition to a CEN then they may be counted as two separate offenders (i.e. counted twice), which may result in an over count of the total number of offenders, rates and police proceedings for South Australia. Furthermore, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status data are not captured for drug diversions or CENs and are recorded as 'not stated'. 61 General Expiation Notices (GENs) may be issued for Public order offences and Offences against justice and are stored on an infringement database that cannot be linked with other police databases that contain information about offenders. As a result, offenders with a principal offence of Public order offences or Offences against justice may be overstated as an offender may be counted twice if they have committed an offence in addition to the GEN during the same reference period. 62 Some offences are coded to ANZSOC supplementary codes (for example, 1530 Breach of violence and non-violence orders, not further defined). Many of the ANZSOC supplementary codes are unranked on the National Offence Index (NOI), which results in some offenders being coded to an "unknown" principal offence. Western Australia 63 Western Australia police utilise two separate offender recording systems for police purposes. Data for this collection are sourced from both systems. Data were successfully matched between the two systems to enable the production of offender counts and associated demographic and offence information. Data on police proceedings however could not be matched between these two systems resulting in an over count in the number of proceedings. Therefore, data about police proceedings are not published. This affects Tables 13, 14 and Chapter 4 and has resulted in national data not being available for police proceedings and the number of times an offender is proceeded against by police. Tasmania 64 From 4 April 2011, Tasmanian Police were only able to proceed against youth for minor drug offences under the Youth Justice Act 1997, rather than give Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative cautions and diversions. This resulted in an increased number of court actions for youth offenders for Illicit drug offences between 2009-10 and 2010-11. 65 For the Recorded Crime Offenders 2010-11 collection, Tasmanian Police undertook a review of their ANZSOC mappings and implemented coding changes that impacted on some principal offence divisions for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 reference periods, most notably Divisions 04 Dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons, Division 07 Unlawful entry with intent, Division 08 Theft and related offences and Division 13 Public order offences. For details about these coding changes, refer to the Explanatory Notes of the 2010-11 issue of this publication. 66 Minor coding changes were made by Tasmania Police in 2011-12, with the most notable impact being the movement of some offenders previously coded to ANZSOC 1322 Liquor and tobacco offences to ANZSOC 1541 Resist or hinder government official (excluding police officer, justice official or government security officer) and ANZSOC 1562 Resist or hinder police officer or justice official. 67 In addition, minor coding changes were made by Tasmania Police in 2012-13, with the most notable impact being the movement of some offenders previously coded to ANZSOC 1312 Criminal Intent to ANZSOC 1121 Unlawfully obtain or possess regulated weapons/explosives and ANZSOC 1122 Misuse of regulated weapons/explosives. Comments have been applied to affected cells in the data cubes. Northern Territory 68 Offence data for juvenile offenders are predominantly coded to an ANZSOC division level supplementary code (for example, 0800 Theft and related offences, not further defined). Many of the ANZSOC division level supplementary codes are unranked on the National Offence Index (NOI), which results in some offenders being coded to an "unknown" principal offence. 69 There are a small proportion of offenders that come into contact with police who are unable to provide their exact date of birth. In these situations, where only a birth year is provided, police may allocate a nominal birth date or alternatively, police may record the offender's date of birth as unknown. Australian Capital Territory 70 Criminal Infringement Notices (CINs) were introduced on 24 December 2009 for a range of minor public order offences, including defacing premises, urinating in public, failing to comply with noise abatement direction and consuming liquor in a prescribed public place. CINs are aimed at having an immediate deterrent effect on an offender while providing an alternative to court action. These offences are not recorded on the primary Australian Capital Territory police recording system. 71 Caution should be exercised when interpreting data on counts of offenders and proceedings for the ACT. As the CINs data are recorded on a separate system, this information cannot be linked to other databases that store information about offenders. Therefore, if an offender has committed an offence in addition to a CIN then that offender may be counted twice. This may result in an over count of the total number of offenders, rates and police proceedings for the Australian Capital Territory. REVISIONS 72 Data for the 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 reference years have been revised since the previous issue of this publication. The revisions are incorporated in the data cubes available in this publication. Note that the extent of revisions differed for individual states and territories and/or between data items. The revisions are as a result of an improvement in the methodology used to determine an offender's principal offence. An offender whose principal offence is out of scope is now included in the counts if they have a second offence that is in scope. It was decided to revise all previous reference periods in order to ensure consistency and comparability of the data between years. 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. 73 Further revised data for 2011-12 was received from a number of jurisdictions during the preparation of this publication. Significant revisions were received for New South Wales, in order to include offenders proceeded against under the NSW Young Offenders Act 1997 (see Explanatory Notes paragraph 50); and Tasmania, due to the ongoing improvement in ANZSOC mappings (refer to paragraph 66). 74 An improvement in coding practices for Victorian Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) resulted in revisions to 2010-11 and 2011-12 data. This reduced the incidence of over counting of offenders who were proceeded against by a non-court action in these periods. COMPARISONS TO OTHER ABS DATA Recorded Crime - Victims 75 There are strong links between victims and offenders recorded by police in their administrative systems. Once a victim is recorded by police an investigation may ensue which could result, although not always, in an offender being proceeded against by police. However, there are a number of limitations in comparing the Recorded Crime - Offenders collection and the Recorded Crime - Victims collection:
76 Despite these differences, broad comparisons can be made between the two collections. 77 For more detailed information about data comparability in relation to the Recorded Crime - Victims collection and more generally about using administrative and survey data, refer to the information paper, Measuring Victims of Crime: A Guide to Using Administrative and Survey Data, June 2011 (cat. no. 4500.0.55.001). 78 For more information about the Recorded Crime - Victims collection, refer to Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia (cat. no. 4510.0). Criminal Courts 79 Data relating to the number of police-initiated court proceedings are not strictly comparable to the number of defendants sourced from the Criminal Courts collection. Not all court actions initiated by police will proceed to a criminal court as police proceedings may be withdrawn or changed to other legal actions during the course of an investigation. Furthermore, a defendant appearing in a criminal court in Australia may be prosecuted via charges initiated by authorities other than state and territory police. There will also be lags between when the police initiate action via a court method of proceeding and when a criminal court finalises a defendant's case. In most cases the offender counts should be higher than defendant counts; however this may not be the case for all offence types due to charges laid by other authorities. For more information about criminal courts refer to Criminal Courts, Australia (cat. no. 4513.0). CONFIDENTIALITY 80 Table cells containing small values have been randomly adjusted to avoid releasing confidential information. Due to the randomisation process, totals may vary slightly across tables. ADDITIONAL DATA 81 Special tabulations may be able to be produced on request to meet individual user requirements. For further information contact the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics by email at <crime.justice@abs.gov.au>. RELATED PUBLICATIONS ABS publications 82 Other ABS publications which may be of interest are listed on the Related Information tab. 83 The ABS web site <https://www.abs.gov.au> includes a release calendar detailing products to be released in the next six months. The National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics within the ABS releases Crime and Justice News (cat. no. 4500.0), an annual newsletter that is published on the ABS web site. The National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics can be contacted by email at <crime.justice@abs.gov.au>. Non-ABS publications 84 Non-ABS sources which may be of interest include:
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