FEDERAL DEFENDANTS
Limited data about federal defendants are presented for the first time in this publication. Defendants who appear in Australian criminal courts may be charged with either a Commonwealth or State legislative offence or both.
Information about the number of finalised defendants who were charged with at least one federal offence, regardless of whether it was their principal offence, and the characteristics of these defendants are presented in this publication.
In 2008-09, 251 (0.6%) defendants in the Children's Courts had one or more federal offences.
Females had a similar proportion of defendants with one or more federal offences to males (0.7% and 0.6% respectively). Of the total defendants with federal offences, those aged 17 years had the highest proportion (26%) followed by those aged 18 years (22%).