DATA ELEMENTS AND DATA ELEMENT CONCEPTS
PRINCIPAL OFFENCE
IDENTIFYING AND DEFINITIONAL ATTRIBUTES
Metadata type:
DATA ELEMENT Version: 1
Definition:
The Principal Offence for a finalised defendant refers to the main offence that has an adjudicated finalisation (i.e. an outcome of proven guilty or acquitted). This is determined as the offence with the highest ranked Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC) using the National Offence Index (NOI).
Context:
Principal Offence essentially describes the most serious offence type associated with an adjudicated defendant. Categorisation by a single principal offence provides an important and useful way of understanding the types of criminal cases presented to the criminal courts. It provides a mechanism for associating offence information with a range of data variables linked to the defendant.
RELATIONAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL ATTRIBUTES
Datatype:
Numeric
Field size:
Min: 4 Max: 4
Representational form:
Code
Representational layout:
NNNN
Data domain:
Valid ASOC code
Guide for use:
There are two supplementary ASOC codes that may be used, but only if the situation explicitly warrants it. If an adjudicated offence cannot be assigned to any ASOC code, then the four-digit code of 9999 can be used. If no data at all are provided, then the four-digit code of 9998 can be used.
Only one Principal Offence ASOC code (4 digit) may be applied to each finalised defendant (retaining leading zeros where applicable).
In order to code the Principal Offence for a finalised defendant, the following order of precedence rules must be applied:
1. Where a defendant has one adjudicated offence, that ASOC code is the Principal Offence.
2. Where a defendant has multiple offences with all adjudicated as Proven Guilty and these are the same ASOC code, or multiple offences all adjudicated as Acquitted and these are the same ASOC code, then that ASOC is the Principal Offence.
3. Where a defendant has multiple offences with some adjudicated as Proven Guilty and some Acquitted, and;
(i) there is only one offence adjudicated as Proven Guilty, then that ASOC code is the Principal Offence for the defendant.
(ii) there are multiple offences adjudicated as Proven Guilty and these are the same ASOC code, then that ASOC is the Principal Offence.
The National Offence Index (see text box below) is applied to determine the appropriate Principal Offence ASOC code to be assigned when the defendant has multiple offences, as in the following instances:
4. Where a defendant has multiple offences with all adjudicated as Proven Guilty and these have different ASOC codes, or multiple offences all adjudicated as Acquitted, and these have different ASOC codes, then apply the National Offence Index ranking to determine the Principal Offence for the defendant.
5. Where a defendant has multiple offences with some adjudicated as Proven Guilty and some Acquitted, and these have different ASOC codes, then apply the National Offence Index ranking to those offences Proven Guilty to determine the Principal Offence for that defendant.
Verification rules:
Principal Offence is coded only for adjudicated defendants. Thus, charges that have been transferred for hearing to another court level (including committals), together with those that are withdrawn or dealt with by some other non-adjudicated method, are not considered for the purpose of determining Principal Offence.
The following ASOC group codes are out of scope of the criminal courts collections as they relate to breaches of existing orders/sentences:
ASOC Group 1512 Breach of Bail
ASOC Group 1513 Breach of Parole
ASOC Group 1519 Breach of Justice Order, n.e.c.
Collection methods:
Direct coding from legislative codes to ASOC is the preferable/most reliable source of ASOC coded data for the determination of Principal Offence information.
Related metadata:
Is related to the data element concepts:
Offence
Finalised Defendant
Is related to the data element:
Method of Finalisation
Principal Sentence
ADMINISTRATIVE ATTRIBUTES
Source document:
1. Higher Criminal Courts Collection Manual
2. Magistrates' Criminal Courts Collection Manual
3. Australian Standard Offence Classification (cat. no. 1234.0)
The ABS Australian Standard Offence Classification appears on the ABS web site. From the ABS home page (<www.abs.gov.au>) select: Methods, Classifications, Concepts & Standards/ABS concepts, classifications and statistical standards/ 12. Classifications and work manuals/ 1234.0 Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC).
Source organisation:
1. Australian Bureau of Statistics
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics
3. Australian Bureau of Statistics
History:
Commenced 2005
Comments:
None
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