Defendants who were finalised for more than one offence will have counting rules applied to determine their principal method of finalisation, offence, sentence type and other characteristics for inclusion in data tables.
Age
The age presented in the Criminal Courts data refers to the age (in years) of defendants at the time of case finalisation. It is not the age at which the defendant committed the offence.
Sex
The categories used for defendant sex are: male, female, organisations, other and unknown. The number of defendants in the category of ‘other’ is currently not published due to small numbers and inconsistent use, though these defendants are included within the total.
Indigenous status
This publication presents data on the Indigenous status of defendants finalised in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. Based on ABS assessment, Indigenous status data for Victoria and Western Australia are not of sufficient quality and/or did not meet the ABS Indigenous Status Standard required for inclusion in national reporting. The ABS continues to work towards improving the quality and coverage of Indigenous status data for this collection.
Indigenous status data are generally based on information collected and recorded by police and transferred to courts systems (upon defendant initiation in the courts). The police information is based upon self-identification by the individual (or via a response from next of kin/guardian). As such, the quality of the Indigenous status data presented in this publication is dependent on police seeking and recording this information, and whether it can be transferred to the courts administrative systems.
In the Australian Capital Territory, defendants identified as non-Indigenous (from police data) are combined with defendants with unknown Indigenous status in Courts systems. Therefore, data for this jurisdiction (available from 2021–22) are presented together in a ‘non-Indigenous and not stated’ category.
Defendants in court for traffic offences often do not have Indigenous status information recorded due to these offences usually being dealt with by road traffic authorities. As such, Dangerous or negligent operation of a vehicle (ANZSOC 2011 Subdivision 041) and Traffic and vehicle regulatory offences (ANZSOC 2011 Division 14) are excluded from Indigenous status tables and text.
Other offences actioned by prosecuting agencies other than police (and which may therefore have low quality Indigenous status information), include: Public order offences (ANZSOC 2011 Division 13), Offences against justice (ANZSOC 2011 Division 15), and Miscellaneous offences (ANZSOC 2011 Division 16). This should be considered when comparing the Indigenous status of defendants for these offence categories.
Court levels
Data are reported at three court levels: Higher Courts, Magistrates’ Courts, and Children’s Courts.
In this publication, the Higher Courts comprises the Supreme and Intermediate Courts. All states and territories have a Supreme Court that deals with the most serious criminal matters, generally referred to as indictable offences (e.g. murder, manslaughter, serious sexual offences, assault, drug trafficking, robbery). The larger states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia) also have an intermediate level of court, known as the District Court or County Court, which deal with most serious offences. All defendants that are dealt with by the Higher Courts have an automatic entitlement to a trial before a judge and jury. In some states and territories, the defendant may elect to have their matter(s) heard before a judge alone. Children treated as adults by the court may be included in the Higher Courts defendant counts.
The lowest level of Criminal Court is the Magistrates’ Court (also known as the Court of Summary Jurisdiction, Local Court or Court of Petty Sessions) which hears most criminal cases. Cases heard in the Magistrates’ Courts do not involve a jury – rather, a magistrate determines whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty. Children treated as adults by the courts may also be finalised in the Magistrates' Courts.
Each state and territory have Children's Courts to deal with offences alleged to have been committed by a child or juvenile. These courts mainly hear summary offences but do have the power to hear indictable offences in some states and territories. Defendants are considered a child if aged under 18 years at the time they committed an offence. Prior to February 2018, defendants in Queensland courts were considered to be a child only where they were aged under 17 years.
A person can only be charged with a criminal offence if they are aged 10 years or over. The Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory lifted the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 years during the reference period, in August and November 2023 respectively. However, the Northern Territory has since lowered the age to 10 years again following the reference period of this release (in October 2024). Most states are also reviewing the minimum age of criminal responsibility, with a rise in age possible in future.
Principal offence
Principal offence refers to the most serious offence (based on the ANZSOC) associated with a finalised defendant. For defendants finalised with a single offence type, this is their principal offence.
Where a defendant has multiple charges, their principal offence is determined using a multi-step process. The first is to code the outcome for each offence to a method of finalisation group and ranked as follows:
- Defendant deceased, unfit to plead, or not guilty by reason of mental illness
- Charges with a guilty outcome
- Charges not proven
- Transfer of charges to other court levels
- Charges withdrawn
- Other non-adjudicated finalisation
- Unknown/not stated
The charge with the highest ranked method of finalisation group is allocated as the principal offence.
If there are multiple charges with the same method of finalisation group, the offence with the most serious sentence (based on the Sentence type classification 2023) is allocated as the principal offence. If multiple charges received the same sentence type, the offence with the greatest sentence length/amount is allocated as the principal offence.
The National Offence Index (NOI), which ranks offences according to perceived seriousness, is used to select the principal offence where there are multiple charges with the same method of finalisation group, sentence type and sentence length/amount.
For example, for a defendant with guilty outcomes for assault receiving a three-month sentence to custody in a correctional institution, and import of illicit drugs receiving a nine-month sentence to custody in a correctional institution, the principal offence would be import of illicit drugs. This is different from the methodology previously used, where the principal offence would be assault. Any charges for the same defendant that were withdrawn or not proven would not be considered.
For 2017–18 and prior years, the principal offence was based on the method of finalisation and NOI only.
Method of finalisation
Method of finalisation refers to how a charge is concluded by a criminal court. For defendants who had multiple charges with varying outcomes, the method of finalisation is assigned based on the following order of precedence:
- Defendant deceased
- Unfit to plead
- Not guilty by reason of mental illness/condition
- Guilty finding by court
- Guilty outcome n.f.d.
- Guilty plea by defendant
- Guilty ex-parte (Magistrates’ Courts and Children’s Court only)
- Agreement of wrongdoing
- Acquitted by court
- Guilty outcome n.f.d.
- No case to answer at committal (Magistrates’ Courts and Children’s Court only)
- Charge unproven n.e.c.
- Committed for trial (Magistrates’ Courts and Children’s Court only)
- Committed for sentence
- Transfer between court levels
- Transfer to non-court agency
- Withdrawn by the prosecution
- Other non-adjudicated finalisation n.e.c.
- Unknown/not stated
Principal sentence
A sentence is a penalty or order imposed by a court upon a defendant who has a guilty outcome for a criminal offence.
Defendants can receive:
- A single sentence for a single offence with a guilty outcome
- A single sentence for multiple offences with a guilty outcome
- Multiple sentences for a single offence with a guilty outcome
- Multiple sentences for multiple offences with a guilty outcome
Defendants with more than one sentence type (for either a single offence or multiple offences) are assigned a principal sentence, which is intended to reflect the most serious sentence based on the hierarchy of the Sentence type classification 2023.
Compound (or ‘complex’) sentences can be broadly defined as sentences served in the community, that include various components or conditions, such as program attendance, community work, drug or alcohol treatment, counselling and education. These sentences are becoming increasingly common across states and territories due to their flexibility, with judges/magistrates able to tailor a sentence to suit the circumstances of an offender and their offending, whilst providing for both restitution and rehabilitation.
The Sentence type classification 2023 has been designed to reflect the severity of compound sentences, and improve comparability of sentences within and across states and territories. The components or conditions imposed within each compound sentence are considered when coding to the classification, so that sentences of a similar nature and level of severity are categorised together, regardless of the label of the order.
From 2022–23, data has been coded according to this approach and historical data for the years prior were approximated to the new classification. The application of the new classification has, for several jurisdictions, resulted in changes to the coding of some sentence orders. Refer to Data comparability – State and territory notes for more detail.
Sentence length and fine amount
The sentence length and fine amount data presented in this publication represents the most severe penalty dealt to a defendant with a guilty outcome. This is determined using the Sentence type classification 2023 and the largest sentence length, or fine amount dealt for that sentence.
The following rules are applied in specific circumstances:
- For sentences with terms to be served concurrently (commencing at the same time) or cumulatively (one after the other), the sentence length or fine amount is the largest value associated with the principal sentence and so may not represent the full penalty served by the defendant for all offences.
- For terms of imprisonment, the sentence length presented is the total period of the sentence imposed, not the 'minimum sentence' or non-parole period. The reported sentence length for 'custody in a correctional institution' usually includes time already served in custody on remand.
- Sentence length data for partially suspended sentences reflects the full period (i.e. the period suspended and the period in custody).
Where a single sentence is given for multiple offence types (or multiple instances of a single offence type) this may result in an overstated sentence length or amount for the associated offence, that is, the value is actually imposed on more than the principal offence it is associated with.
Life and indeterminate sentences do not have a determined term and are excluded from mean and median sentence length calculations. However, from 2019–20, defendants with these sentences are counted within the category of ‘10 years and over’ for length of time sentenced to custody in a correctional institution.
Duration
Duration is a measure of court timeliness. It represents the time taken (in days) between the date a defendant’s case(s) was initiated in court (through committal or registration) and the date they ceased to be an item of work for the court as follows:
Duration = Date of finalisation – Date of initiation + 1