4515.0 - Federal Defendants, Selected States and Territories, 2008-09  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 27/05/2010  First Issue
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    INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

    A federal defendant is someone charged with an offence against Commonwealth law. Commonwealth charges can be prosecuted by state and territory police agencies, the Australian Federal Police, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, state Directors of Public Prosecutions, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Tax Office and other (generally Commonwealth) authorities. Information on federal defendants brought before the courts is recorded by the court administration authorities in each state and territory for operational and case management purposes in the adjudication and sentencing process. Federal defendants statistics are based on data extracted from these administrative records. Data are supplied to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) by the courts administering agency for all states and territories except for Queensland (where they are supplied via the Office of Economic and Statistical Research), and New South Wales (where they are supplied via the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research).

    Federal defendants statistics are produced by the National Criminal Courts Statistics Unit (NCCSU) of the ABS. The NCCSU functions under an intergovernmental agreement between the ABS, the Australian Government Attorney General's department and state and territory departments responsible for justice issues. One of the major functions of the NCCSU is to compile, analyse, publish and disseminate uniform national criminal courts statistics, subject to the provisions of the Census and Statistics Act 1905(Cth).

    For information on the institutional environment of the ABS, including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.


    RELEVANCE

    The Federal Defendants collection provides statistics about federal defendants dealt with by the criminal jurisdiction of the Higher, Magistrates' and Children's Courts of Australia. Federal defendants include persons as well as organisations (for the Higher and Magistrates' Courts only) charged with Commonwealth offences. Comparable statistics are provided for each of the states and territories except Tasmania on the offences and sentence types associated with federal defendants dealt with by the Criminal Courts. If a person or organisation is a defendant in a number of criminal cases finalised within the courts during the reference period, this person or organisation will be counted more than once within that reference period.


    TIMELINESS

    Data from the Federal Defendants collection will be released annually in Federal Defendants, Selected States and Territories (cat. no. 4515.0) and accompanying datacubes within 12 months of the reference period.


    ACCURACY

    Federal defendants data are extracted from each state and territory's court administration system. The data are not subject to sampling error. Non-sampling errors can arise from inaccuracies in recording by courts agencies, when the data are extracted, processed and disseminated. The ABS has limited influence over any errors associated with data recorded by external sources. The ABS does provide a collection manual which outlines the scope, coverage, counting rules and data item definitions for the Federal Defendants collection to minimise data extraction errors. Efficient processing and editing procedures are in place within the ABS to minimise processing and reporting errors.


    COHERENCE

    In order to ensure consistency in the data for each state and territory, federal defendants statistics are compiled according to national standards and classifications. However, some differences still occur due to state and territory legislative requirements or to limitations of the various administrative data bases that are used to extract the data.

    Due to differing scope and counting rules the data in the Federal Defendants publication may not be comparable to data published in other national and state/territory publications.


    INTERPRETABILITY

    The Federal Defendants publication contains detailed Explanatory Notes, Appendices and Glossary that provide information on the data sources, counting rules, terminology, classifications and other technical aspects associated with these statistics.


    ACCESSIBILITY

    In addition to the information provided in the publication, supplementary Data Cubes are also available providing additional state and territory information.

    If the information you require is not available from the publication or the Data Cubes, then the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics may be able to help you with a customised service to suit your needs.