Media Releases

27 June 2023 - Adjourned undertakings – also known as good behaviour orders, or bonds – are the second most common sentence type (after fines) imposed in Victoria but they have not been reviewed since they were first introduced in 1985, almost 40 years ago. In its new report, the Sentencing Advisory Council has made 26 recommendations for their improvement.

11 October 2022 - The Sentencing Advisory Council has published a new consultation paper seeking stakeholder and community views on possible changes to deferred sentencing.

13 September 2022 - A review of sentencing data from the last 20 years reveals that courts in Victoria are now more likely to send offenders to prison for serious offences and that those offenders are getting longer sentences.

16 August 2022 - The Sentencing Advisory Council has published a new consultation paper seeking stakeholder and community views on possible changes to adjourned undertakings.

19 July 2022 - The Sentencing Advisory Council’s latest report reviews 20 years of case law in Australia and highlights inconsistencies in how media coverage affects sentencing outcomes.

3 May 2022 - The Sentencing Advisory Council’s latest report finds changes in the sentencing of breaches of family violence orders in the 10 years from 2011 to 2020.

29 March 2022 - A new Sentencing Advisory Council report finds that the number of people sentenced for serious offending while serving a community correction order (CCO) has fallen to a five-year low during the 12 months to 30 June 2021, most likely due to COVID-19 restrictions affecting Victoria’s court system.

4 March 2022 - A report released today reveals over 25,000 stalking offences were recorded by police and nearly 7,000 were sentenced by courts in Victoria in the 10 years to 2020.

22 February 2022 - A report released today on breaches of personal safety intervention orders* (PSIOs) in Victoria finds that while 24% of Victoria’s population lives in rural and regional areas, 41% of applications for PSIOs are made in the regions.

15 September 2021 - A report released today finds that the number of offenders aged 60 and over being sentenced in Victoria has increased substantially over the past 10 years, well beyond the growth in this age group in the Victorian population.