Sentencing Deception Offenders, Part 1: Local Courts

• NCJ Number: 173457
• Author(s): P Gallagher
• Editor(s): D Spears
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 6 pages
• Corporate Author: Judicial Cmssn of New South Wales
• Sale Source: Judicial Cmssn of New South Wales
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

Data collected by the New South Wales, Australia, Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research were used to study age, sex, offenders' prior convictions, and sentences for the 4,633 deception and fraud cases brought to local courts in the jurisdiction between January 1994 and June 1995.

Abstract

The data showed that 80 percent of the cases resulted in convictions and 83 percent of the convictions resulted from guilty pleas. Thirty-three percent of the principal offenses involved obtaining money or goods by deception; 14 percent of the principal offenses involved social security fraud. Thirty-two percent of the offenders were females, compared to 15 percent of offenders for all cases in the local courts during the period studied. The main penalties were recognizances and fines; custodial sentences were relatively infrequent. Older offenders tended to receive more severe penalties than did younger offenders. In addition, females were less likely than males to receive a custodial sentence or a fine. Figures and footnote