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Criminal courts

There is a hierarchy of criminal courts at the federal and state/territory levels.

The state and territory court systems comprise:

• Magistrates' courts: lower courts that deal with relatively minor or summary criminal offences. Under some circumstances, these courts may also deal with less serious indictable offences. They are also responsible for conducting preliminary (committal) hearings for indictable offences.
• Intermediate (district/county) courts: courts that deal with crimes of greater seriousness. Intermediate courts hear the majority of cases involving indictable crimes.
• Supreme courts: the highest level of court within a state or territory. Supreme courts deal with the most serious crimes.

Higher courts comprise intermediate and supreme courts, where defendants charged with serious or indictable offences are dealt with, and where appeals are heard. Magistrates' courts are called lower courts.

Each state and territory also has a children's court, which sits within the magistrates' court system. Children's courts deal solely with defendants who committed an offence when aged less than 18 (or, in Queensland, less than 17).

Minor criminal offences, called summary offences, are dealt with in the lower courts, in which penalties are less severe; major offences, dealt with by the higher courts, are called indictable offences. If a defendant pleads not guilty, indictable offences normally require a trial by judge and jury.

All state, territory and federal courts handle a number of matters that appear in the court system for the first time, although almost all criminal charges, including those for federal criminal offences, are lodged initially with a magistrates' court.

In states with both supreme and intermediate courts, the majority of charges are decided in intermediate courts. Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory do not have intermediate courts; all relevant charges are dealt with by their supreme courts.

The ABS publishes statistics on criminal defendants whose cases were initiated or finalised in higher and magistrates' courts, and, recently, in children's courts. ABS data do not include defendants finalised in electronic courts, family violence courts, Koori courts or drug courts.

In addition, in recent years the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision (SCRGSP) has produced statistics on the number of lodgements at each court level.

Both the ABS and the SCRGSP report on criminal court data for financial rather than calendar years.

Source: Reference 22and References 23

The criminal court process

Case flows

Cases passing through the courts generally share the following common elements:

• lodgement: the initiation of the matter with the court
• pre-trial procedures: committal hearing or discussion and mediation between the parties
• trial
• court decision: judgment or verdict followed by sentencing.

Source: Reference 22and References 23

Lodgements

Most lodgements are processed by the magistrates' court in the relevant criminal jurisdiction.

In 2006–07, there were 819,500 cases lodged in criminal courts in Australia.

Cases initiated in magistrates' courts accounted for 96 percent of all lodgements in the criminal courts in 2006–07; three percent were initiated in district/county courts; and one percent in supreme courts.

Source: Reference 22

Timeliness

The duration between the lodgement of a matter with the court and its finalisation is referred to as timeliness. Generally, lower courts complete a similar proportion of their workload with greater timeliness than higher courts, because cases are of a more straightforward nature, the disputes and prosecutions heard are usually less complex, and there is a greater proportion of guilty pleas.

Committal is the first stage of hearing an indictable offence in the criminal justice system. A magistrate assesses the sufficiency of evidence presented against the defendant and decides whether to commit the matter for trial in a higher court. Defendants are held in custody pending a committal hearing or trial, or released on bail. The conduct of the committal hearing is important for timely adjudication of the charges against the defendant.

• On average, 71 percent of committal hearings in magistrates' courts in 2006–07 were finalised within 13 weeks from the initial hearing of charges by the court. A further 16 percent were finalised in the subsequent three months.
• Four percent of hearings took 52 or more weeks to finalise.
• Cases in which the defendant was acquitted tended to take longer than those in which the defendant was proven guilty.

Source: Reference 23

• In 2006–07, 26 percent of matters finalised in higher courts lasted more than 52 weeks, and 19 percent took less than 13 weeks to finalise.
• Cases involving a guilty plea generally took the shortest time to finalise: 24 percent of such cases lasted less than 13 weeks, in comparison with three percent of acquittals and one percent of cases in which the defendant was proven guilty.
• Cases resulting in a guilty verdict tended to take the longest time: 59 percent of cases that ended in a finding of guilt took 52 weeks or more to finalise, compared with 45 percent of acquittals and 19 percent of cases involving a guilty plea.

Source: Reference 23

• On average, 69 percent of hearings in children's courts in 2006–07 were finalised within 13 weeks from the initial instigation of charges.
• Almost three-quarters of cases in which the defendant was proven guilty were finalised in less than 13 weeks. Sixty percent of cases ending in an acquittal took 13 weeks or longer to finalise.

Source: Reference 23

Court decisions

Cases are finalised in the courts in the following ways:

• adjudicated: determined whether guilty of the charges, by court judgement or plea of guilty
• non-adjudicated: unresolved for a variety of reasons, including withdrawal by prosecution, unfitness to plead, death of the accused, diplomatic immunity, statute of limitations.

• In 2006–07, magistrates' courts finalised the cases of 581,001 adult defendants. Only four percent of these defendants were acquitted.
• Of cases presented in magistrates' courts, defendants in 86 percent were proven guilty, and three percent were transferred to other court levels.

Source: Reference 23

• In 2006–07, higher courts finalised the cases of 16,172 defendants. The majority (79%) were proven guilty.
• In seven percent of cases, the defendant was acquitted.

Source: Reference 23

• In 2006–07, children's courts finalised the cases of 41,157 defendants.
• The defendant was proven guilty in 79 percent of cases and acquitted in three percent.

Source: Reference 23

• In 2006–07, as in previous years, 21 percent of defendants in magistrates' courts were adult females.
• In all age groups, adult males were more likely than adult females to appear as defendants in court.
• Adult males and females appearing in magistrates' courts were more likely than others of the same sex to be aged 20 to 24 than to fall into other age groups.

Source: Reference 2 and Reference 23

• As in magistrates' courts, adult males aged 20 to 24 were the most likely to appear as defendants in higher courts. The rate for adult females aged 20 to 24 was similar to that of those aged 25 to 34 in 2006–07: 43 and 39 respectively per 100,000 females of their age groups.
• Adult females made up 12 percent of defendants in higher courts.

Source: Reference 2 and Reference 23

Sentencing

Sentencing options available at each court level include but are not limited to:

• fine
• good-behaviour bond
• probation order
• suspended sentence
• community supervision
• community custody
• home detention
• periodic detention
• imprisonment

Sentence types can be broadly divided into custodial orders and non-custodial orders. A custodial order requires a person's liberty to be restricted for a specified period, either through detention in a correctional facility or home, or through regular supervision while in the community. Custodial orders include custody in a correctional institution, custody in the community, and suspended sentences.

Non-custodial orders are sentences that do not involve being held in custody. They may include community supervision, community work, or monetary penalties.

Sentencing data for adult offenders have been available since 2002–03 from all states and territories. The ABS is continuing to work towards a more detailed and regular sentencing collection for higher courts and magistrates' courts.

• In 2006–07, 92 percent of defendants found guilty in magistrates' courts were given a non-custodial sentence.
• Defendants aged 25–34 and those aged 35–44 were more likely to receive a custodial sentence than were defendants in other age groups.

Source: Reference 23

• A much higher proportion (82%) of defendants found guilty in higher courts than of those found guilty in magistrates' courts received custodial sentences.
• Of defendants found guilty in higher courts, 65 percent of those aged less than 20, and 79 percent of those aged 20 to 24, received custodial sentences, compared with 84 to 87 percent for all other age groups.

Source: Reference 23

• In the majority (70%) of cases, the principal sentence handed down to adult male offenders was a monetary order.
• Custody in a correctional institution accounted for seven percent of the total number of sentences in all courts in 2006–07, as it did in 2005–06.
• Four percent of adult male defendants found guilty received fully suspended sentences.

Source: Reference 23

• Monetary orders were the most common sentence type (71%) issued to adult female defendants.
• Custody in a correctional institution accounted for three percent of principal sentences of female defendants in 2006–07.

Source: Reference 23

• Thirty-six percent of defendants found guilty in children's courts received a monetary order as their principal sentence type, and 21 percent received a community supervision or work order.
• Custodial sentences accounted for eight percent of sentences handed down in children's courts in 2006–07.

Source: Reference 23

• In magistrates' courts, the proven offences most likely to incur custodial orders were UEWI (54%), sexual assault (40%), and AICI (26%).
• The proven offences most likely to incur monetary orders were dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons (86%) and traffic-related offences (84%).

Source: Reference 23

• In higher courts, the proven offences most likely to receive a custodial sentence were homicide (90%), robbery (76%), and sexual assault (71%).
• Proven offences least likely to incur custodial sentences in higher courts were illicit drug offences (61%), deception (57%), and theft (49%).

Source: Reference 23

• In children's courts, the majority of defendants found guilty of robbery, sexual assault, or UEWI received a custodial or community supervision or work order.
• Defendants found guilty of other offences were more likely to receive some other form of non-custodial order.

Source: Reference 23