NORTHERN TERRITORY

TOTAL OFFENDERS

There were 11,851 offenders proceeded against by the police in the Northern Territory in 2016–17, a decrease of 2% or 202 offenders from 2015–16.


PRINCIPAL OFFENCE

Contributors to the decrease include the principal offences of:

• Acts intended to cause injury, down 8% or 233 offenders – consisting mainly of Assault offences (239 offenders)
• Abduction, harassment and other offences against the person, down 25% or 51 offenders
• Property damage and environmental pollution, down 12% or 29 offenders

For each of these offence divisions, this was the highest annual decrease for any of the states and territories. (Table 6)


SEX

In 2016–17 the male offender rate in the Northern Territory was 7,866 offenders per 100,000 males, twice the female offender rate of 3,408 offenders per 100,000 females. This was the lowest ratio of male to female rates of any of the states and territories; the male rate was three times the female rate in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, and four times the female rate in the remaining states and territories. (Tables 7 to 14)


YOUTH OFFENDERS

There were 746 youth offenders in 2016–17, a decrease of 15% (130 offenders) from 2015–16. The youth offender rate was 2,961 offenders per 100,000 persons, the highest rate for any of the states and territories.

The largest annual decreases from 2015–16 to 2016–17 occurred amongst youth offenders with a principal offence of:

• Acts intended to cause injury, down 50 offenders or 21%
• Theft, down 38 offenders or 40%
• Unlawful entry with intent, down 28 offenders or 9% (Table 20)

PROCEEDINGS

Between 2015–16 and 2016–17, the number of police proceedings in the Northern Territory increased by 2% (414 proceedings). This was the sixth consecutive increase in proceedings.

Since the beginning of the time-series in 2008–09, Northern Territory proceedings have increased by 62% (8,816 proceedings) from 14,251 to 23,067 in 2016–17. Over three-quarters of the increase was due to a single principal offence division, Public order offences, which has more than doubled from 5,806 proceedings in 2008–09 to 11,314 proceedings in 2016—17. (Table 31)


TIMES PROCEEDED AGAINST

During 2016–17, over a third of Northern Territory offenders were proceeded against more than once during the reference period (35% or 4,114 offenders). This was the highest proportion for any of the states and territories for which these data are available. (Table 16)