The number of assault cases being heard in Australia’s criminal courts rose to its highest figure in more than 10 years.
The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows a 16 per cent rise in assault cases across the 2022–23 financial year.
These figures show 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.
Assault offences relate to the direct and immediate infliction or threat of force, injury or violence upon a person.
This can include, serious assault resulting in injury, serious assault not resulting in injury and common assault.
“Of the assault defendants who received a judgement, 91 per cent (54,069) had a guilty outcome,” ABS head of crime and justice statistics Samantha McNally said.
“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 defendants were found to have a criminal court case completed over the past year, an increase of nine per cent from the previous year.
The ABS said the increase was partly due to clearing of COVID-19 backlog cases.
