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, 591 (3%) defendants in the Higher Courts had one or more federal offences. Women had a higher proportion of finalised defendants charged with at least one federal offence than men (5% and 3% respectively).
Federal defendants had a much older profile with the proportion of defendants rising as the defendants age increased. This pattern was consistent for both males and females. Those aged 45 years and over had the highest proportion of defendants with one or more federal offences (7%), followed by defendants aged 35 to 44 years (4%).
DEFENDANTS FINALISED, Proportion of federal offenders by age
![Graph: DEFENDANTS FINALISED, Proportion of federal offenders by age](/ausstats/abs@.nsf/91f72cb52e908514ca25709f0000a6a8/b9e84bed6d409c65ca2576e3000a14b2/Body/0.6A2!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif)