Statistical Report 1995

Crime and Justice Statistics for Western Australia (1995)

The following information has been extracted from the Centre's annual statistical report entitled "Crime and Justice Statistics for Western Australia: 1995". The Report (as a whole) contains statistical information on crimes and the criminal justice system in Western Australia in 1995. It is the sixth annual statistical report of the Crime Research Centre and describes data collected from the police, courts and correctional services for the period 1 January to 31 December 1995. The report was published in December 1996.

The following data were either not available to the Centre or not ready for publication and therefore were not described in the report:
· charges heard by the WA Courts of Petty Sessions (adult lower courts)
· data relating to persons held in police lockups, including persons detained under provisions of the Acts Amendment (Detention of Drunken Persons) Act 1989 which came into force 27 April 1990, decriminalising the offence of public drunkenness.


Crime trends in Western Australia

A total of 281,049 offences were reported to police in 1995, an increase of 8.1% over 1994 figures. There was an increase of 9.8% in the rate of violent offences reported to police and an increase of 6.1% in the rate of reported property offences. Rates of reported crime increased for almost all offence types. Since 1991, the rate of robbery (armed and unarmed) reported to police has almost doubled, increasing from 46.8 to 78.3 per 100,000 residents.

National Crime Statistics

Based on National Crime Statistics compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Western Australia continued to record the highest rates of reported burglary and motor vehicle theft in Australia, however, the WA robbery rate was lower than the national average. About ten in every 1,000 Western Australians reported a vehicle stolen in 1995 and about 35 in every 1,000 WA homes were reported targets of burglary or attempted burglary. The homicide rate was slightly lower in 1995 (4.1 per 100,000 persons) than in 1994 (4.5 per 100,000), with no signs of an increasing trend when viewed in the long term.

Police Arrests in Western Australia

Arrest statistics for 1995 show only a marginal decrease in arrests compared to previous years and most of this decline is attributed to reductions in juvenile arrests. There was significant activity in the juvenile justice area during 1995, following the introduction of the Young Offenders Act and the setting up of new diversionary processes. An increased use of these mechanisms may have led to the declines observed in juvenile arrests.
As in previous years, racial and gender disparities were observed in arrest data. In 1995, Aborigines were almost nine times more likely to be arrested than non-Aborigines, and males were about four times more likely to be arrested than females. The most common offences charged by police related to driving offences. Driving under the influence, reckless driving and driverŐs licence offences account for more than a quarter of all police arrests. Two out of every five charges laid by police were outside the Perth metropolitan area.


Trends in Police Arrests in WA: 1990-95





Juvenile Justice

In line with the reductions in juvenile arrests, juvenile court appearances also fell in 1995. The number of individuals dealt with by the Children's Court has fallen by more than 57% since 1990. However, the proportion of juveniles sentenced to detention increased from 3.2% in 1990 to 5.5% in 1995, suggesting that while many less serious offenders have been diverted from the Courts (through cautions or Team referrals, for example), the more serious offenders remain and are being dealt with more severely.

Juvenile detention rates for 1995 show that the Western Australian rate was one of the highest in the nation (50.5 per 100,000 persons) and 1.3 times higher than the national average.


National Census of Juveniles in Detention: 1990-95



Source: Persons in Juvenilw Corrective Institutions 1990-1995 compiled by Lynn Atkinson and Diane Dagger, Australian Institution of Criminology.


Court Activity

In the District and Supreme Courts, the volume of charges and persons dealt with has increased. Not guilty pleas have increased since 1991 and now account for more than a third of all pleas entered. The conviction rate has fallen slightly over the same period but remains high at about 80%. However, conviction rates vary with offence type. Property offences had high conviction rates (89.4%) compared to homicide (47.5%), sex offences (65.3%) and assaults (72.3%). The use of imprisonment has increased since 1990 and remains the most common sanction used by the Higher Courts. In 1995 more than 70% of convicted charges resulted in a prison sentence. Since 1993, median sentence lengths have increased substantially for some offences, particularly homicide offences.


Prison Trends

The number of offenders received into WA prisons fell by 23% between 1994 and 1995, as a result of significant declines in the number of prisoners serving time for non-payment of fines. This follows the introduction of the Fines, Penalties and Infringement Notices Enforcement Act 1995, which introduced a range of measures, including the suspension of a person's motor drivers licence, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of fines collection.

However, despite the decline in the number of offenders flowing into prison, the 'stock' of prisoners in Western Australian gaols increased (due to increases in the number of prisoners serving longer sentences) and reached record levels in 1995.

Prison Population Trends in WA: 1990-95



WA ranks second to the Northern Territory in rates of adult imprisonment but far exceeds the NT and all other States in Aboriginal rates of imprisonment. The Australian average daily adult imprisonment rates is about 117 per 100,000 persons, while the WA rate is almost 45% higher at 170 per 100,000 persons.


Rates of Adult Imprisonmemnt by Australian Jurisdiction - July 1995




For further information, please contact:
Ms Anna Ferrante
Research Fellow
Crime Research Centre
Phone  (09) 6488 2830
Email  anna.ferrante@uwa.edu.au

To obtain a copy of the Report ($30), please contact:
Ms Daranee Chenhall
Administrative Officer
Crime Research Centre
Phone  (09) 6488 2830
Fax  (09) 6488 1034
Email  crime.research@uwa.edu.au