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Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2003

Criminal justice resources

Justice expenditure

According to the Report on Government Services 2003 (Reference 21), the total real recurrent expenditure (less revenue from own sources) on justice in 2001-2002 was nearly $7 billion. Since 1997-98, expenditure on justice has increased by 18% overall and by an average of 4% each year.

Police services represent the largest component of the justice system, accounting for approximately 66% of the total justice-related expenditure. Corrective services account for a further 23%, and court administration accounts for the remaining 11% (Figure 87).

Police

Policing activities are predominantly the responsibility of the police agencies of state and territory governments, with the Australian Federal Police providing a community policing service in the ACT on behalf of the ACT Government. Funding for these services comes almost exclusively from state and territory government budgets, with some specificpurpose grants being provided by the Commonwealth.

The figures discussed below exclude resource data for the AFP for non-ACT policing functions.

Expenditure

The total recurrent expenditure on police services across Australia was $4.8 billion. This amounts to $244 for every person in Australia, and $317 per adult. Recurrent expenditure on salaries accounted for 77% of this expenditure.

Total recurrent expenditure, less revenue from own sources in 2001-2002 was $4.6 billion, or $240 for every person and $305 per adult.

Staffing

Most people involved directly in the delivery of police services are sworn police officers (employees recognised under each jurisdiction's Police Act). Sworn police officers exercise police powers such as arrest, summons, caution, detain, fingerprint and search.

In recent years there has been a trend towards civilianisation of police services, with some non-core activities undertaken by non-sworn officers or contracted to external providers.

  • The total police services staffing in Australia on 30 June 2002 was 57,830, an increase of 1% on the number recorded in 2001. This averages 294 per 100,000 persons (231 sworn police officers and 63 civilian employees).
  • There were 45,395 sworn police officers and 12,435 civilian employees making up Australian police services in 2002.
  • Twenty per cent of sworn police officers in 2002 were female.

Source:

Court administration

The total recurrent expenditure on court administration services across Australia was $1.01 billion in 2001-2002, an increase from $969 million in 2000-2001. Expenditure for criminal court administration was about $431 million for 2001-2002.

Total expenditure less income (including fines) was $420 million. This amounts to $21 for every person in Australia, and $28 per adult. All criminal court costs are attributed to state and territory governments.

Source:

  • Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision 2003, Report on government services, volume 1 : education, justice, emergency management, Productivity Commission, Canberra. <http://www.pc.gov.au/gsp/reports/rogs/2003/>

Figure 91 shows the average expenditure per case lodgment in the criminal courts. The higher the level of court, the higher the cost associated with each criminal case lodgment. This is because more complex and lengthy cases are typically tried in the higher courts.

Adult corrective services

Resources allocated for corrective services in Australia are divided into two broad categories: prisons and community corrections.

Total net expenditure on corrective services in Australia was approximately $1.59 billion in 2001-2002; $1.4 billion (87%) for prisons, $161.9 million (10%) for community corrections and $46.1 million (3%) for transport and escort services. This corresponds to $81 for every person in Australia and $105 for every adult.