Improving the Justice System Response to Sexual Offences: Report (html)
Appendix D: Availability of data about sexual offences in the criminal justice system
Note: This table compiles the information extracted for the purposes of this report and may not be comprehensive. In particular, we did not request information from the lower courts (as data was publicly available for our purposes) or the Supreme Court of Victoria (although some information was supplied in its submission and via email).
|
Stage |
Category |
Information |
Avail-able? |
Published? |
Notes |
Source |
Organisation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Police |
Numbers |
Number and rate of recorded offences |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Recorded Offences |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|
|
Number and rate of recorded criminal incidents |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Criminal Incidents |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|||
|
Number and rate of incidents involving the same alleged offenders |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Alleged offender incidents |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|||
|
Number of victim reports (the number of people recorded as victims of one or more criminal offences) |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Victim reports |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|||
|
Who |
Age and sex of victims by principal offence |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Male and female only |
Victim reports |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|
|
Relationship of victim to offender |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Further detail available (eg acquaintance) |
Victim reports |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
||
|
Age and sex of offenders by principal offence |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Alleged offender incidents |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|||
|
Contexts |
Number of sexual offences flagged as family violence incidents |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Victim reports |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
||
|
Number and rate of offences by local government area |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Recorded Offences |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|||
|
Number and rate of criminal incidents by local government area |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Recorded Offences |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|||
|
Number and rate of alleged offender incidents by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Alleged offender incidents by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|||
|
Police Continued |
Contexts Continued |
Location type of recorded offences |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Recorded Offences |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|
|
Location type of recorded criminal incidents |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Criminal Incidents |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|||
|
Other offence types recorded |
Yes |
No |
Can be extracted for analysis by Crime Statistics Agency |
See ‘Attrition of sexual offence incidents across the Victorian criminal justice system’ |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
||
|
Outcomes |
Investigation status of recorded offences (including complaints withdrawn) |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Recorded Offences |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
||
|
Charge status for criminal incidents |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Criminal Incidents |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
|||
|
Relationship of victim to offender |
Yes |
Yes, quarterly |
Further detail available (eg acquaintance) |
Victim reports |
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria |
||
|
Reasons for charges not progressing |
Not readily extract-ed |
Narrative information must be reviewed |
|||||
|
Time |
Time between incident and report |
Yes |
No |
Can be extracted for analysis by Crime Statistics Agency |
|||
|
Time between report and police outcome |
Yes |
No |
Can be extracted for analysis by Crime Statistics Agency |
See ‘Attrition of sexual offence incidents across the Victorian criminal justice system’ |
|||
|
Prosecution |
Numbers |
Number of prosecutions (including for sexual offences) |
Yes |
Yes, annually |
Annual report |
Office of Public Prosecutions Victoria |
|
|
Outcomes of nolle prosequi or permanent stays |
Yes |
No |
Office of Public Prosecutions Victoria |
||||
|
Reasons for nolle prosequi or permanent stays |
Yes |
No |
Four categories: accused deceased, no reasonable prospect of conviction, or not in public interest, or not recorded |
Office of Public Prosecutions Victoria |
|||
|
Time |
Time between incident and filing of hearing |
Yes |
No |
||||
|
Time between filing hearing (first court hearing) and trial |
Yes |
No |
Office of Public Prosecutions Victoria |
||||
|
Supports |
Witnesses referred for support |
Yes |
Yes, annually |
More detailed records held internally |
Annual report |
Office of Public Prosecutions Victoria |
|
|
Other |
Applications for joint trial |
No |
|||||
|
Applications to introduce sexual history evidence or confidential communications |
No |
||||||
|
Courts |
Numbers |
Number of cases involving principal sexual offences |
Yes |
Yes, annually |
Criminal Courts |
Australian Bureau of Statistics |
|
|
Number of sexual offences by principal proven offence |
Yes |
Yes |
Higher courts sentencing database, see Sentencing Advisory Council statistics |
||||
|
Cases finalised in sexual offence cases involving child and/or cognitively impaired witness |
Yes |
No |
Available on request |
County Court of Victoria |
|||
|
Charges per case, including principal offence |
Yes |
Yes |
Can be extracted for analysis by Crime Statistics Agency; public version only where charges proven |
SACStat Sentencing Advisory Council |
|||
|
Outcomes |
Cases finalised (sexual offences and other types) |
Yes |
Yes, annually |
Public version broken down into higher courts and Magistrates’ Courts; records also held by courts and Office of Public Prosecutions in more detail |
Criminal Courts |
Australian Bureau of Statistics |
|
|
Courts Continued |
Outcomes Continued |
Outcomes (eg guilty plea, conviction, acquittal) |
Yes |
Yes, annually |
Public version broken down into higher courts and Magistrates’ Courts; for more detail, see Sentency Advisory Council statistics; records also held by courts and Office of Public Prosecutions in more detail |
Criminal Courts |
Australian Bureau of Statistics |
|
Sentencing outcomes |
Yes |
Yes |
Periodic analysis on types of sexual offences |
SACStat Sentencing Advisory Council |
|||
|
Outcomes involving children or person with cognitive impairment |
Not readily extract-ed |
County Court of Victoria |
|||||
|
Time |
Age of case from initiation to finalisation |
Yes |
No |
Available on request |
County Court of Victoria |
||
|
Average time from case initiated to finalisation |
Yes |
No |
Available on request |
County Court of Victoria |
|||
|
Average time from case initiated to finalisation with child and/or cognitively impaired witness |
Yes |
No |
Available on request |
County Court of Victoria |
|||
|
Stage at which cases resolved |
Yes |
No |
Available on request |
County Court of Victoria |
|||
|
Age of pending cases |
Yes |
No |
Available on request |
County Court of Victoria |
|||
|
Appeals |
Finalised appeals by offence type |
Yes |
No |
Available on request |
County Court of Victoria; Supreme Court of Victoria |