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Australian crime : facts and figures 2003

Prisons

Sentenced prisoners by most serious offence, by gender, number and percent, 2002
Offence	Male		Female
Offence	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
Homicide	1,767	10	122	11
Assault	2,039	12	126	11
Sex offences	2,007	12	9	1
Robbery	2,401	14	134	12
Unlawful entry with intent	2,105	12	115	10
Other theft^*	1,135	7	123	11
Fraud^**	442	3	109	10
GSJ^***	1,277	8	115	10
Drug offences	1,674	10	166	15
Other^****	2,111	12	101	9
Total	16,958	100	1,120	100
^* Includes motor vehicle theft. ^ Deception and related offences. ^* Government security and justice procedures, includes offences such as: breach of court order, breach of parole, escape custody, offences against justice procedures, treason, sedition and resisting customs officials. ^**** Includes other offences against the person and property, public order offences and driving offences. Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 1994-2002, Prisoners in Australia (various issues), cat. no. 4517.0, ABS, Canberra.

The main offences for which male prisoners were sentenced included robbery, break and enter, assault and sex offences. For female prisoners the main offences included drug offences and robbery.
Males imprisoned for the violent offences of homicide, assault, sex offences and robbery accounted for almost half of all sentenced male prisoners in 2002, compared with one third of sentenced females.
These patterns have remained relatively stable between 2001 and 2002.