Federal Defendants, Australia

Latest release

Statistics about defendants with federal offences dealt with by criminal courts including demographic, offence, outcome and sentence information.

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Reference period
2024-25 financial year
Release date and time
30/04/2026 11:30am AEST

Key statistics

  • 9,158 federal defendants finalised in 2024–25, up 5%
  • Acts that threaten, harass, or control remained the most common principal federal offence (53%)
  • Most judgements resulted in a guilty outcome (94%)
  • Almost a third of those with a guilty outcome received a fine (31%) and a further 19% were sentenced to custody in a correctional institution.

Federal defendants in Australian courts

This publication presents data related to defendants charged with an offence against Commonwealth (federal) legislation, who were finalised in an Australian criminal court in 2024–25. The data is a subset of the Criminal Courts, Australia collection.

Data presented are based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC), 2023. Offence data in earlier releases were coded to the previous version of the classification (ANZSOC 2011). Data has been concorded to provide time series data from 2010–11 to 2022–23 in this release.

There were 9,158 federal defendants finalised in 2024–25, an increase of 5% (435) from the previous year. This represented 2% of all defendants finalised (521,632) in Australia’s state and territory criminal courts over the same period, as reported in Criminal Courts, Australia, 2024–25.

The median age of federal defendants was 38.1 years, and males accounted for more than three-quarters (77%) of defendants.

Principal federal offence

In 2024–25, the most common principal federal offences were:

  • Acts that threaten, harass, or control (53% or 4,889 defendants), such as nuisance phone calls or sending threatening messages
  • Fraud and related offences (12% or 1,125 defendants), such as taxation offences and counterfeiting of currency
  • Offences against government services (7% or 651 defendants), such as voting or electoral offences
  • Sexual offences (7% or 598 defendants), such as child abuse material offences.
     

(a) Excludes defendants finalised by transfer to other court levels.

Court outcomes

In 2024–25, of the federal defendants whose charges resulted in a court judgement, most (94% or 6,533) had a guilty outcome. For these defendants:

  • 31% (2,012) received a fine as their principal sentence
  • 24% (1,584) were sentenced to a good behaviour order
  • 19% (1,251) were sentenced to custody in a correctional institution.
     

Acts that threaten, harass, or control

In 2024–25, acts that threaten, harass, or control accounted for over half (53% or 4,889) of federal defendants. Of these defendants:

  • 81% (3,955 defendants) were male
  • The median age was 37.0 years
  • Almost all (99.6% or 4,870 defendants) were classified to the ‘communications’ federal offence group, indicating the offence occurred online or by phone.

Of the defendants of acts that threaten, harass, or control receiving a court judgement, most (93% or 3,326) had a guilty outcome. For these defendants:

  • 32% (1,061) were sentenced to a good behaviour order
  • 25% (827) received a fine
  • 15% (483) were sentenced to a moderate penalty in the community
  • 11% (373) were sentenced to custody in a correctional institution.
     

Data downloads

Data cubes

Refer to "Guide to finding data in the Federal defendants, 2024-25 publication tables" for a list of data items available within each data cube.

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Data files

Methodology

Scope

Defendants (persons or organisations) charged against Commonwealth legislation whose case was finalised in criminal courts during the financial year 2024–25. Each case separately finalised is counted, excluding court level transfers unless specified.

Geography

Data are available for states and territories, and Australia.

Source

Administrative data is supplied to the ABS by courts administration agencies or statistical agencies in each state and territory.

Collection method

Administrative data for all finalised criminal court federal defendants in the Higher (Supreme and District/County courts), Magistrates’ and Children’s Courts are collected annually at the completion of each financial year. 

Concepts, sources and methods

History of changes

Principal offence is based on ANZSOC 2023 from 2023–24. Principal offence for prior years has been concorded from the original ANZSOC 2011 value. 

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