Snapshots of Magistrates’ Court Sentencing Trends for Causing Injury Offences Released
The Sentencing Advisory Council has released three new Snapshots in its series focusing on offences heard in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria from July 2004 to June 2008.
The latest Snapshots analyse sentencing trends for the offences of causing serious injury recklessly, causing injury intentionally and causing injury recklessly.
The Snapshots include previously unpublished statistics on sentencing outcomes as well as the age and gender of people sentenced for each of the three offences.
The data in these Snapshots indicate that:
- One in five people sentenced for causing serious injury recklessly received an immediate custodial sentence (271 people or 22.0%), including 177 people who were sentenced to imprisonment (14.4%).
- Most people sentenced for causing injury intentionally received a non-custodial sentence (1,007 people or 55.9%), including 422 people who were received a community based order (23.4%) and 403 people who were fined (22.4%).
- Reflecting the less serious nature of the offence of causing injury recklessly, only one in ten people were given an immediate custodial sentence (705 people or 10.9%), including 527 people who were sentenced to imprisonment (8.1%).
Snapshots of sentencing outcomes for these offences in the higher courts were released in February 2008.