Assault cases in Australia’s criminal courts rose by 16 per cent in the 2022-23 financial year, the highest in over 10 years, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Samantha McNally, ABS head of crime and justice statistics said: “There were 74,526 defendants whose most serious offence was assault, which accounted for 14 per cent of all completed court cases across the country.”
“Of the assault defendants who received a judgement, 91 per cent (54,069) had a guilty outcome. The courts imposed custody in a correctional institution for one in five of these defendants, and a good behaviour order on a further one in five.”
Over half a million (533,971) defendants had a criminal court case completed during 2022-23, an increase of 9 per cent from the previous year. This increase was in part due to clearing of COVID-19 backlog cases.
Traffic and vehicle offences continued to account for just over a third (35 per cent) of all defendants across Australian courts.
