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The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports on a 'Drop in defendants finalised by Australian courts' -

The Higher, Magistrates' and Children's courts of Australia all saw a decrease in finalised defendants in 2010-11, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The number of defendants finalised by Magistrates' courts has decreased for all states and territories except Tasmania and the Northern Territory. The largest decreases were seen in Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, with a decrease nationally of 12% in 2010-11. This is the largest decrease in the Magistrates' courts in the past 6 years.

There was a decrease of 12% for defendants finalised in the Children's courts from 2009-10, and a decrease of 3% in the Higher courts.

In the Magistrates' courts, traffic offences continued to be the most common offence type, accounting for 43% of defendants, followed by acts intended to cause injury (11%) and public order offences (8%). Those aged under 35 years accounted for over half of the defendants, with 79% of these being male.

For the Higher courts 53% of defendants were males aged under 35 years. In the Children's courts, 79% of defendants were male. The main offences were acts intended to cause injury (22%) and illicit drug offences (19%) in the Higher courts and theft (21%) and acts intended to cause injury (20%) in the Children's courts.

The ABS indicates that in 2010-11 there were 586,391 defendants finalised in Australia's criminal courts -

- 16,298 in the Higher Courts;
- 533,857 in the Magistrates' Courts; and
- 36,236 in the Children's Courts

Between 2009-10 and 2010-11, the number of defendants finalised across all criminal courts decreased by 11%, resulting from decreases in all three court levels. In 2010-11 the number of male defendants decreased by 12% (from 512,278 in 2009-10 to 452,491). The number of emale defendants decreased by 11% (from 139,610 in 2009-10 to 124,993).

Of those defendants adjudicated, 97% were proven guilty, of whom 11% (55,663) were sentenced to a custodial order, the same proportion as 2009-10. At the state and territory level, Queensland contributed the most to the defendant population with 28% (164,367), followed by New South Wales with 27% (155,630) and Western Australia with 17% (97,483). The proportions of defendants who were male ranged from 81% in South Australia to 75% in Western Australia.