Sentencing Outcomes in the Magistrates' Court by Number

This graph shows the number of people sentenced in the Magistrates’ Court by the sentence type imposed from 1996-97 to 2008-09.

Figure: Sentencing outcomes in the Magistrates’ Court, 1996-97 to 2008-09, by number

In 2008-09 there were 93,078 people sentenced in the Magistrates’ Court – an 8% decrease since 1996-97.

However, in 2008-09 the total number of people sentenced in the Magistrates’ Court was 3% higher than in the previous year due to small increases across a number of sentence types.

For the 93,078 people sentenced in the Magistrates’ Court in 2008-09, the following sentences were imposed:

• 3,707 people (4%) were sentenced to imprisonment
• 1,593 people (2%) were sentenced to an intensive correction order
• 7,071 people (8%) were sentenced to a wholly or partially suspended sentence of imprisonment
• 4,853 people (5%) were sentenced to a community-based order
• 47,327 people (52%) were fined
• 5,331 people (6%) were placed on a criminal justice diversion plan
• 9,661 people (11%) were sentenced to an adjourned undertaking, a Commonwealth order or a good behavior bond
• 10,196 people (11%) were discharged or dismissed.

Explanatory Notes

Up until 2001-02, the data collection systems used by the Department of Justice counted selected adjourned undertakings and fines under a single sentence type category. This prevented the Council separating these sentences into discrete categories for analysis until the data collection systems changed in 2001-02 such that all sentence types were counted separately.

The sentencing statistics of the Magistrates' and Children's Courts that relate to the number of people discharged or dismissed have been revised by the Council to improve the accuracy and reliability of the data. The Council will undertake additional data cleansing in the future and therefore further minor adjustments to the number of defendants discharged or dismissed will occur. Revisions to the data have been performed in consultation with the Department of Justice.

Refer to sentence classification 1996-97 to 2008-09 for a description of sentence types included in each category for numbers.

Source

Courts Statistical Services, Department of Justice (Victoria). Unpublished data.

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