Media Release
Embargoed until 00:01 a.m. (AEST) Tuesday 30 June 2020
A new report released today by the Sentencing Advisory Council has found that under 2% of people serving a community correction order (CCO) were sentenced for a serious offence in 2018–19 that had been committed while on the CCO. The report also found a growing percentage of people being sentenced for serious offences committed while serving a CCO that had been combined with imprisonment.
These findings are included in the Sentencing Advisory Council’s third statutorily required report on the number of convictions for serious offences committed by people on a CCO. The latest report examines this number for 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019.
Nearly 15,000 people receive a CCO in Victoria each year, including CCOs combined with imprisonment (‘combined orders’). The number of people serving a CCO at any given time is likely to be greater than 15,000 due to some CCOs operating for longer than 12 months.
The estimated rate of CCO contravention by serious offending has remained relatively steady over the three financial years to 30 June 2019 (as a percentage of the total number of people who received a CCO during the last three financial years). The rate rose slightly from 1.6% of people in the two financial years to 30 June 2018 to 1.7% of people in 2018–19.
651 people were sentenced in 2018–19 for committing a serious offence while on a CCO. This number represents a 3% increase on the number of people in the previous financial year (632 in 2017–18). The 3% increase is a considerable reduction from the 14.7% increase evident between 2016–17 (551 people sentenced) and 2017–18 (632 people sentenced).
The 651 people were sentenced in 2018–19 for 914 charges of serious offending committed while serving a CCO. This is a 0.2% increase on the 912 charges of serious offending committed while serving a CCO by the 632 people who were sentenced in 2017–18.
The overall rate of CCO contravention by serious offending remains relatively low at 1.7% in 2018–19. However, the percentage of people sentenced for committing serious offences while on a combined order (CCO plus imprisonment) increased from 17.3% (of the 551 people) in 2016–17 to nearly 30% (of the 651 people) in 2018–19.
As in the two previous years, the three most common serious offences sentenced in 2018–19 for people on a CCO were:
- make threat to kill (319 charges)
- make threat to inflict serious injury (187 charges)
- aggravated burglary (138 charges).
A small number of very serious sentenced offences were committed by people on a CCO including:
- murder (2 charges)
- manslaughter (2 charges)
- rape (8 charges).
Council Chair Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg said:
‘The findings for 2018–19 are remarkably consistent with the two previous financial years showing that the CCO contravention rate of serious offences remains below 2%. The main finding of note is the increase in the number of people committing serious offences after serving a period of imprisonment as part of a combined order.
‘These offenders tend to be higher risk offenders in the CCO population, so it is not overly surprising. However, in March 2017, the maximum term of imprisonment that could be combined with a CCO was reduced from two years to one year.
‘While this should have theoretically reduced the number of higher risk offenders receiving combined sentences, it has not yet translated to a reduction in the number of people sentenced for serious offences while on a CCO.’
The report, Serious Offending by People Serving a Community Correction Order: 2018–19, will be available for download from the Sentencing Advisory Council’s website from Tuesday 30 June 2020.
About Serious Offences
Serious offences are defined by section 104(AA)(3) of the Corrections Act 1986 (Vic) to include ‘serious violent offences’ such as armed robbery, aggravated burglary, make threat to kill and intentionally causing serious injury, and ‘sexual offences’ such as rape and sexual assault.
The Sentencing Advisory Council’s requirement to report on serious offences committed by people while serving a CCO follows a 2015 amendment to the Corrections Act 1986 (Vic). Section 104AA(2) states that ‘for each financial year commencing on or after 1 July 2016, the Sentencing Advisory Council must report for that year the number of persons convicted during that year of a serious offence committed while subject to a community correction order’.
