Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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STATES AND TERRITORIES

Principal federal offence

Of the 10,828 federal defendants finalised in Australia's criminal courts, more than one-third (34% or 3,695) appeared in New South Wales, over one-fifth (22% or 2,435) appeared in Queensland and almost one-fifth (18% or 1,997) appeared in Victoria (Table 2.4).

For federal defendants, the most prevalent principal offence was fraud and deception in Tasmania (68%), South Australia (56%), New South Wales (35%), Queensland (34%) and Victoria (26%). In Western Australia and the Northern Territory, offences against justice procedures were the most common (40% and 33% respectively), while in the Australian Capital Territory, traffic and vehicle regulatory offences (55%) were the most predominant. This is due largely to parking offences charged under federal legislation in the Australian Capital Territory (see Explanatory Notes, paragraph 49 for more detail) (Table 2.4).


Offence type

Of the 42,037 offences finalised across all court levels, New South Wales had the highest proportion of offences finalised by the courts (30% or 12,796), followed by Queensland (23% or 9,691 offences) and Victoria (17% or 7,329 offences). These states accounted for over two-thirds of all federal offences (Table 2.5).

FEDERAL OFFENCES - ALL COURTS (a)(b), Proportion of federal offences