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Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• Abstract
• Introduction
  • Definition of a death in custody
  • Data collection
  • Scope
  • Presentation of data
  • Considerations
  • Changes from previous report
• Deaths in custody 2024–25
  • Deaths in prison custody
  • Deaths in police custody and custody-related operations
• Indigenous deaths in custody 2024–25
  • Indigenous deaths in prison custody

Key findings

• The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) interviewed 816 detainees about their personal experience of victimisation and fear of victimisation for three crime types—physical assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft—as part of the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program. This is the first study of its kind in Australia to compare rates of victimisation and fear of victimisation between a sample of police detainees and the general population.

Foreword | Correctional rehabilitation programs are routinely offered to moderate to high-risk offenders in all Australian jurisdictions. The similarities in service provision between states and territories is great; most, if not all, offer programs that are dedicated towards reducing risk in sexual and violent offenders, as well as addressing more general causes of offending. This paper describes some of the changes that have occurred to service provision since the last national review of offenders programs was conducted in 2004.

Foreword | Estimating the extent to which criminal activity can be attributed to substance use is a challenging but important task. Quantifying the nexus between drugs and crime contributes to a robust assessment of the cost and burden of alcohol and drug abuse to the Australian community. For the criminal justice system in particular, drug crime estimates, such as those presented in this paper, help to direct more effective targeting of diversion and treatment policies.

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• Abstract
• Introduction
  • Definition of a death in custody
  • Data collection
  • Scope
  • Considerations
  • Changes from previous report
• Deaths in custody 2023–24
  • Deaths in prison custody
  • Deaths in police custody and custody-related operations
• Indigenous deaths in custody 2023–24
  • Indigenous deaths in prison custody
  • Indigenous deaths in police custody and custody-related operations

Acknowledgements

This report is based on research undertaken on behalf of the Criminology Research Council. The author would like to thank the Council, Matthew Willis, Professor Chris Cunneen and Dr Adam Tomison for their input into the research contained in this report. The assistance of the Western Australian Department of Justice in providing unpublished data is also gratefully acknowledged.

The chapters of this book were originally published as Research Papers of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Foreword | There has recently been renewed interest in place-based approaches for targeting crime prevention, such as justice reinvestment. This project linked research from life course and place-based criminology to explore whether some communities generated chronic and costly offenders. The Semi-Parametric Group-based Method was used to identify non-normative or chronic offenders in the 1990 Queensland Longitudinal Dataset (n=14,171).

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has released the latest statistical report from the National Deaths in Custody Program (NDICP).

On the 14 November 1994, the Senate agreed to a motion by Senator Harradine requiring all Australian Government departments and agencies produce an indexed list of files every six months for tabling before parliament. The production of the list is intended to make the operations of government more transparent to the Australian public.