4513.0 - Criminal Courts, Australia, 2017-18 Quality Declaration
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/02/2019
Page tools: Print Page Print All | ||
ALL COURTS1
FIGURE 1: NUMBER OF DEFENDANTS FINALISED, Court level, 2017–18 Footnote(s): (a) Defendants may be counted twice where they have been transferred from one of the three court levels and then finalised in another within the same reference period. See Explanatory Note 25. (b) Excludes organisations. Australian Bureau of Statistics © Commonwealth of Australia 2019. Summary characteristics Of all defendants finalised during 2017–18:
Principal offence Three-quarters of all defendants finalised during 2017–18 had a principal offence in one of five offence categories:
Part of the decrease in these offences may be attributed to an increasing number of some ‘lower level’ offences, such as public disorder and minor drug possession, being diverted away from the court process.2 Notable increases (between 2016–17 and 2017–18) included:
DEFENDANTS FINALISED, Selected principal offence, 2010–11 to 2017–18 Australian Bureau of Statistics © Commonwealth of Australia 2019. Principal Sentence During 2017–18, 86% of all defendants finalised (507,169) in Australia’s criminal courts had their charge(s) proven. (Table 1) Monetary orders remained the most common sentence type – handed down to approximately three in five (300,095) defendants proven guilty – with 99% of these orders issued by the Magistrates’ Courts. (Table 7) The most common monetary order was a fine (97%), with a median fine amount (for all offence types) of $500. (Tables 7 and 60) DEFENDANTS PROVEN GUILTY, Principal sentence, 2016–17 to 2017–18 Footnote(s): (a) Includes good behaviour bond/recognisance orders, licence disqualification/suspension/amendment, forfeiture of property orders, nominal penalty and other non-custodial orders not elsewhere classified. Australian Bureau of Statistics © Commonwealth of Australia 2019. There were 45,434 defendants sentenced to custody in a correctional institution during 2017–18, an increase of 3% on the previous year. Of these:
The median sentence length for custody in a correction institution3 (for all offences) was 8 months. Homicide and related offences received the largest median sentence length4 of 8 years. (Tables 57 and 58d) Footnotes 1 All Courts data refer to the grouping of the Higher, Magistrates' and Children's Courts. 2 See Explanatory Notes 83, 91, 93 and 95. 3 Excluding life and indeterminate imprisonment (see Explanatory Note 48). 4 Excludes sentence length data for Tasmanian Higher Courts (see Explanatory Note 104). Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.
|