Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 11—Crime and justice 467
11.23 PROPORTION OF DEFENDANTS MAKING INITIAL AND FINAL PLEAS OF GUILTY,
By State/Territory—1998–99
%
100
80
60
40
20
Initial plea of guilty
Final plea of guilty
0
NSW Vic. SA WA Tas. NT ACT Aust.(a)
(a) Excludes Qld where data on both initial and final pleas were not available.
Source: Higher Criminal Courts, Australia, 1998–99 (4513.0).
A large number of defendants initially plead not
guilty and then change their plea to guilty during
the course of criminal proceedings in the Higher
Courts. Graph 11.23 indicates the proportion of
defendants whose initial and final pleas were
guilty. The difference between these two
proportions represents the extent to which
defendants changed their plea during criminal
proceedings. Information on initial and final plea
was not available for Queensland. In the other
States and Territories the proportion of
defendants changing their plea from not guilty to
guilty was highest in the Northern Territory
(74.5%) and lowest in the Australian Capital
Territory and Western Australia with 19.5% and
20.0% respectively.
For defendants who have been dealt with by the
courts, duration figures are available that indicate
the elapsed time taken to finalise all charges for a
defendant from the date the defendant’s case
commenced. The total duration for a finalised
defendant includes the time taken by the defence
and prosecution to prepare their cases, the time
taken to list the case and the actual time taken for
any hearings.
Table 11.24 provides median duration statistics
from initiation to finalisation for defendants in
each State and Territory. During 1998–99, the
median duration for defendants finalised in the
Higher Courts was longest in New South Wales at
35.3 weeks, and shortest in Western Australia and
Tasmania at 13.0 weeks and 15.1 weeks
respectively. The median duration is longer for
some methods of finalisation than for others: in
most States and Territories it takes longer for a
defendant to be finalised if they have a guilty
verdict than if they plead guilty or if they are
acquitted.
Defendants finalised by guilty plea are divided
into those with an initial plea of guilty (i.e.
initiated for sentence) and those with an initial
plea of not guilty (i.e. initiated for trial). Data on
initial plea were not available for Queensland. In
most States and Territories, the median duration
of defendants with a method of finalisation of
‘guilty plea’, but where the defendant had an
initial plea of not guilty, was at least double that
of defendants with an initial plea of guilty. The
Northern Territory was the exception, where the
duration for defendants with an initial plea of not
guilty was 18.3 weeks, compared with 12.3 weeks
for defendants with an initial plea of guilty.
Graph 11.25 shows the proportion of defendants
by age group during 1998–99. The highest rate of
defendants was in the 20–24 age group with
303.1 defendants per 100,000 persons in that age
group. The second highest rate was the
17–19 age group with 275.1 defendants per
100,000 persons. The median age of defendants
finalised was 28.4 years. Most defendants dealt
with in the Higher Courts during 1998–99 were
male (87.9%).