Home → Publications → Reports → Australian crime : facts and figures → 2003 → Prisoners by gender, rate per 100,000 adults and females as a percentage of total prisoners, 1984-2002
Australian crime : facts and figures 2003
Prisons
Prisoners by gender, rate per 100,000 adults and females as a percentage of total prisoners, 1984-2002
Sources
- Australian Bureau of Statistics 2002, Population by age and sex : Australian states and territories 1981 to 2001, cat. no. 3201.0, ABS, Canberra.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics 1994-2002, Prisoners in Australia (various issues), cat. no. 4517.0, ABS, Canberra.
- Australian Institute of Criminology, 1982-1993, Australian prisoners, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.
What this chart shows
- Between 1984 and 2002, the overall imprisonment rate for males increased from 166 to 283 per 100,000 population.
- The female rate of imprisonment was 7 per 100,000 in 1984 and 19 per 100,000 in 2002.
- Almost 7% of prisoners were women in 2002, up from 4% in 1984.
- The number of male and female prisoners increased annually by an average of 5% and 8% respectively over the 18-year period.
- Fifty-nine per cent of males and 51% of females were known to have previously been in prison.