Sentencing Outcomes in the Magistrates' Court by Percentage

This graph shows the percentage of people sentenced in the Magistrates’ Court by the sentence type imposed over 19 years.

Figure: Sentencing outcomes in the Magistrates' Court, 1991 to 2008-09, by percentage

Fines remain the most common sentencing outcome for people sentenced in Victoria’s Magistrates’ Court, with 52% of all people sentenced in the Magistrates’ Court in 2008-09 receiving a fine.

Sentencing trends within the Magistrates’ Court have remained relatively stable, but notable changes from 1991 to 2008-09 include the following:

• an increase in wholly and partially suspended sentences from 4.7% to 7.8%
• an increase in community-based orders from 5% to 5.4%
• an increase in fines from 43.8% to 52.2%
• an increase in people placed on a criminal justice diversion program from nil to 5.9%
• a decrease in imprisonment from 5.3% to 4.2%
• a decrease in adjourned undertakings, bonds and fines from 20.5% to 11.2%.

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 1981 to 2008-09 for a description of sentence types included in each category for percentages.

Source

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 Unpublished data.

This data file opens in a new window. Please contact us if you require a copy of this data file in an alternative format.

• Magistrates Court Sentencing Outcomes by Percentage.xls (XLS, 92 KB)