The ACT Criminal Justice Statistical Profile (the Profile) is a historical series of crime data that is compiled twice a year by the Legislation, Policy and Programs Branch (LPP) of the ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate and then tabled in the Legislative Assembly.

The profile contains data from the following agencies:

• ACT Policing;
• ACT Ambulance Service;
• Canberra and Calvary Hospitals’ Emergency Departments;
• ACT Sobering Up Shelter;
• Domestic Violence Crisis Service;
• Restorative Justice Unit;
• ACT Magistrates Court;
• Supreme Court of the ACT;
• Access Canberra;
• Office of Children, Youth and Family Support, Community Services Directorate;
• ACT Corrective Services;
• Galambany ‘Circle Sentencing’ Court;
• Victim Support ACT.

The Profile provides Government, community agencies and the public, with data on varying levels of crime in the ACT and the responses to crimes by the criminal justice system.

In 2013, LPP completed a review of the content and presentation of the Profile. The webpage 2013 Consultation Review provides a summary of the review findings and a link to the review report.

The latest six monthly Profile is available below. Key highlights for the quarter are found in the March 2016 Key highlights summary [PDF 5.13MB]. Email alerts are available when each Profile is released if you register interest in the Profile.

For more information on the Profile, see the Profile's Statement of Purpose and Explanatory Notes - March 2016 [PDF 4.41MB] or contact LPP on 6205 4786.

Note also that there are many other sources of ACT criminal justice data, including ACT Policing’s Crime Statistics web site (contains crime by location), the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Criminology.

What's new

The March 2016 Profile includes changes to the Restorative Justice Tables, the first collection of ‘other’ gender data and an ACT Courts data addendum for June 2016.

Restorative Justice Tables

The Restorative Justice (RJ) tables have been modified to accommodate phase 2 of the restorative justice scheme which commenced on 25 February 2016 and expands the scheme to include adults and more serious crimes. Previously, the scheme was only available for young people charged with less serious offences. The following data items have been added to RJ Tables 1-4:

• adult offenders;
• ‘serious’ offences;
• additional referring agencies including: the Galambany Circle Sentencing Court, Victim Support ACT (VSACT), ACT Corrective Services (ACTCS), the Magistrates Court and the Sentence Administration Board;
• gender breakdowns for victims as well as offenders;
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural status for victims and adult offenders.

Collection of ‘other’ gender data

The ACT Legislative Assembly amended the Births, Deaths and Marriages Act 1997 in March 2014 to allow people to record a third category of gender on birth certificates. People can choose unspecified, indeterminate, intersex or any of these individually. Further amendments this year allow those born outside the ACT to obtain a recognised details certificate which also allows these categories.

The March 2016 marks the start of collection of ‘other’ gender data in the Profile. Relevant Restorative Justice and ACT Corrective Services tables now report data on the ‘other’ gender, which includes unspecified, indeterminate or intersex genders.

ACT Courts data addendum

When the move to 6 monthly tabling of the Profile was made, the Profile published only the September 2016 quarter ACT Court statistics, omitting the June 2015 quarter data. The June 2015 ACT Court data is included in the addendum to the Courts’ data set in the March 2016 Profile.

To ensure users of the Profile can collate either financial year or calendar year statistics from the ACT Courts tables, the latest data provided is a 6 month snapshot made from the last two quarters of the 2015 calendar year. ACT Courts data will continue to lag one quarter behind the release date of the Profile to ensure financial year or calendar year statistics from the Courts tables can be collated.

Criminal Justice Statistical Profile - March 2016

Statement of Purpose and Explanatory Notes - March 2016 [PDF 4.60MB]

Key highlights summary - March 2016 [PDF 5.44MB]

Data Tables for March 2016 [XLSX 1.49MB]

Criminal Justice Statistical Profile - March 2016 [PDF 5.77MB] – as tabled in the Legislative Assembly.

Past Issues

Recent Criminal Justice Statistical Profiles are linked below.

Criminal Justice statistical Profile - September 2015

Criminal Justice Statistical Profile - March 2015

Criminal Justice Statistical Profile - December 2014

Previous releases of the Criminal Justice Statistical Profile are available in the Criminal Justice Statistical Profile Past Issues.