Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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MOST SERIOUS OFFENCE

At 30 June 2004, almost half (47%) of all sentenced prisoners were convicted with a most serious offence involving violence or the threat of violence, including homicide and related offences (10%), sexual assault and related offences (11%), acts intended to cause injury (assault) (14%) and robbery/extortion (12%) (table 11.43). A further 13% of sentenced prisoners had a most serious offence of unlawful entry with intent, and 10% were serving sentences for a most serious offence involving illicit drugs.

11.43 SENTENCED PRISONERS, By most serious offence - 30 June 2004
	NSW(a)	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT in ACT	ACT in NSW(a)	ACT total	Aust.(b)
Homicide and related offences	619	368	484	126	221	49	54	-	12	12	1,921
Acts intended to cause injury	1,152	217	614	61	322	69	190	15	11	26	2,640
Sexual assault and related offences	593	362	627	121	359	58	61	n.p.	n.p.	18	2,182
Dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons	53	29	97	n.p.	98	9	15	n.p.	n.p.	5	307
Abduction and related offences	64	28	8	n.p.	14	-	3	n.p.	-	n.p.	121
Robbery, extortion and related offences	930	357	527	113	397	28	14	n.p.	n.p.	19	2,367
Unlawful entry with intent	900	388	471	139	415	56	58	7	12	19	2,434
Theft and related offences	460	340	154	38	180	22	18	15	12	27	1,227
Deception and related offences	238	103	192	64	53	15	6	n.p.	n.p.	5	674
Illicit drug offences	877	350	370	76	211	12	20	9	5	14	1,925
Weapons and explosive offences	66	13	5	4	5	6	n.p.	n.p.	-	n.p.	104
Property damage and environmental pollution	57	35	56	54	22	13	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	n.p.	250
Public order offences	61	30	6	n.p.	24	n.p.	-	-	n.p.	n.p.	124
Road traffic and motor vehicle regulatory offences	558	105	132	21	144	13	86	14	3	17	1,073
Offences against justice procedures, government security and government operations	797	266	126	144	160	24	37	8	23	31	1,562
Miscellaneous offences	33	19	210	n.p.	43	n.p.	11	3	-	3	325
Total	7,458	3,010	4,079	970	2,668	379	587	85	118	203	19,236
(a) The majority of full-time prisoners sentenced in the ACT are held in NSW prisons. (b) The ACT in NSW figures are a subset of the NSW figures and are not separately counted in the Australian totals. Source: Prisoners in Australia, 2004 (4517.0).

There were differences in the types of most serious offence for which men and women were imprisoned. The highest proportion of most serious offences for males in prison at 30 June 2004 involved acts intended to cause injury (14%), unlawful entry with intent (13%), robbery/extortion (12%), and sexual assault (12%). Illicit drug offences (15%), deception offences (13%) and acts intended to cause injury (12%) were the most frequent most serious offences for females (graph 11.44).