A new online tool developed by the Tasmania Sentencing Advisory Council to provide free and open access to sentencing data from the Magistrates Court of Tasmania has been launched today.
SACStats is an online database covering criminal cases from the last five full financial years, including the current financial year, where the defendant was found guilty.
The database provides information about the number of cases or charges in the time period, the types of sentences handed down, and the quantum of the sentence. Users will also be able to search the Database in relation to such factors as gender, age and an offender’s prior offending record.
SACStats is now available to the public following its launch today, and is located on the Sentencing Advisory Council web site: www.sentencingcouncil.tas.gov.au.
The data does not include Youth Justice cases, or cases or charges sentenced in the Supreme Court.
Sentencing Advisory Council chair, Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg, said the database would help make court data more accessible to the general public.
“It is important for the work of the courts to be transparent to the public, to practitioners, to judicial officers and students of the justice system. This database will allow any person to examine the sentencing practices of the Magistrates Court, where the vast majority of criminal cases are decided.
"Its comprehensive coverage will provide a more complete coverage of sentencing than has been possible in the past when information was limited by infrequently published reports or selected media stories which may not have fully represented the reality of sentencing in Tasmania.”
The SAC provides independent advice on sentencing in Tasmania, and works to improve the quality and availability of information on sentencing practices in Tasmania and increase community awareness of the rule of law, sentencing and the Tasmanian justice system.
The SAC has previously delivered reports on a number of areas of sentencing law, and is currently working on three referrals, including a report on options for phasing out suspended sentences in Tasmania and alternative sentencing options to replace them, the sentencing of offenders convicted of sex offences, including mandatory sentencing for serious sexual offences against children, and putting into effect compulsory sex offender treatment programs in prison, and the sentencing of family violence offenders, incorporating mandatory sentencing and mandatory treatment.