4515.0 - Federal Defendants, Selected States and Territories, 2010-11

Quality Declaration

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 19/06/2012

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Contents >> FEDERAL OFFENCES >> FEDERAL OFFENCE TYPE

FEDERAL OFFENCE TYPE

During 2010-11, there were 42,039 federal offences finalised in the Higher, Magistrates' and Children's Courts. Over two-thirds of federal offences finalised in all court levels (67% or 27,995 offences) were classified as fraud offences, a decrease of 23% from 2009-10 (Table 3.1).

FEDERAL OFFENCES - ALL COURTS (a)(b), Selected federal offence groups - Percentage change from 2009-10
Graph: FEDERAL OFFENCES - ALL COURTS (a)(b), Selected federal offence groups - Percentage change from 2009–10

Graph: FEDERAL OFFENCES - ALL COURTS (a)(b), Selected federal offence groups - Percentage change from 2009–10

Within the Higher Courts, the predominant offence types were: fraud (36%), sexual offences (24%) and financial offences (13%). Of the 38,420 offences in the Magistrates' Courts, 70% were classified as fraud and 10% were communications offences. The highest proportion of offences in the Children's Courts were communications offences (68%) (Table 3.1).

Fraud offences comprised the highest proportion of offences in every jurisdiction except the Australian Capital Territory, ranging from 35% in the Northern Territory up to 88% in South Australia. The largest proportion of communications offences were finalised in Victoria (20%), the largest proportion of financial offences were finalised in New South Wales (10%) and the largest proportion of illegal fishing offences (8%) were finalised in the Northern Territory. Offences relating to Commonwealth officials were proportionally more common in the Australian Capital Territory (12%), with Tasmania having the largest proportion of Commonwealth sexual offences (16%) (Table 3.2).