How to use SACStat

Data on SACStat is organised according to offence. You can find an offence by using the search tool or browsing lists of offences.

Search offences

You can search for offences using the search for an offence field on the home page and the search offences page. The search tool supports full and partial word matches (e.g. 'culpable driving' and 'culp driv'). The search tool returns all offences that include your search term(s) in the offence name.

Browse offences

The browse offences page includes a list of all offences ordered alphabetically. You can select the court level and state or Commonwealth offences using the tabs at the top of the page.

What if I can't find an offence?

If you are unable to find an offence, it may not be included on SACStat. SACStat excludes offences with fewer than 10 charges sentenced during the applicable reference periods (and fewer than 40 charges of Victorian offences sentenced in the Magistrates' Court).

Offence menu tabs and dropdowns

Each offence includes a menu with four tabs above the graphs.

The Offence overview tab provides a summary of sentencing outcomes for the offence, including the most common sentence for the offence and the gender of offenders (for offences with sufficient case-level data). Note that if two sentencing outcomes are the most common, the overview includes the most severe outcome according to the hierarchy of sentencing options.

Other tabs bring up a dropdown menu with options to view different graphs. You can switch between outcomes for charges and cases using the radio buttons to the left of the dropdown.

The All sentences tab includes all outcomes for an offence. At a minimum, the dropdown under this tab includes charge-level data for:

  • all sentencing outcomes
  • all sentencing outcomes by year
  • number sentenced by year.

If there is sufficient data, the dropdown also includes options for graphs showing the age of offenders, the gender of offenders and the number of charges per case.

The Prison tab includes custodial sentences imposed for the offence. The label for this tab and the dropdown options vary depending on the jurisdiction and the available data for the offence. Dropdown options may include:

  • imprisonment lengths (excluding aggregate sentences)
  • average imprisonment lengths by year (also excluding aggregate sentences)
  • non-parole periods
  • non-parole periods by year
  • combined orders
  • other custodial options available for the jurisdiction.

The CCOs and fines tab includes non-custodial sentences imposed for the offence. The label for this tab and the dropdown options also vary depending on the jurisdiction and the available data for the offence. The options may include:

  • community correction order lengths
  • average community correction order lengths
  • fine amounts (excluding aggregate sentences)
  • average fine amounts by year (also excluding aggregate sentences)
  • other non-custodial options available in the jurisdiction.

Standard sentences

A standard sentence checkbox is included for offences subject to standard sentence classification, such as murder and culpable driving causing death. The checkbox is located below the charges and cases radio buttons to the left of the dropdown menu.

Saving the data

You can save the full dataset for each offence as an Excel file by clicking Download the Excel data file under each graph.

You can save the offence overview and all the graphs for an offence by clicking the Save overview and graphs to PDF button, also located below each graph. The graph number in the PDF corresponds to the sheet number in the Excel file.

Note that some browsers print to PDF from the position of the page displayed on screen.

Need more help?

If you need further help with SACStat, please get in touch with us via our Contact us page, or email us at contact@sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au.