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Target 10

Target 10: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system.

Target measures

Measures



  • Number of First Nations people aged 18 and over in legal custody of adult corrective services.

  • Age-standardised rate (per 100,000) of First Nations people aged 18 years or over in legal custody of adult corrective services, by sex, ae group and over time.

  • Age-standardised rate (per 100,000) of non-Indigenous people aged 18 years or over in legal custody of adult corrective services, over time.


Available by



  • Sex: males, females, persons.

  • Age group: 18, 19, 20–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–39, 40–44, 45–49, 50–54, 55–59, 60–64, 65 and over.


Data periods



  • 2024

  • Time trend data: 5-year period (2020 to 2024).


Data source


ABS Prisons in Australia, via the Australian Government Productivity Commission website and ABS Prisoners in Australia (PC 2025; ABS 2024c, 2024d).


Region types


Main structures: Australia, states and territories.


Suppression


Measure based on publicly available data with no further suppression rules applied.


Notes



  • From 2019, in all states and territories, persons remanded or sentenced to adult custody are aged 18 years or over. Previous data may include persons under the age of 18 in adult correctional institutions (PC 2025).

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rates are calculated based on estimates of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population based on the medium series projections for 30 June of the relevant calendar year (PC 2025).

  • Non-Indigenous rates are calculated based on estimates of the non‑Indigenous population derived as the difference between the estimated resident population as at 31 March and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population projections as at 30 June for the relevant calendar year (PC 2025).

  • Comparisons of imprisonment rates should be made with care, especially for states and territories with relatively small Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Small changes in prisoner numbers can cause variations in rates that do not accurately represent either real trends over time or consistent differences from other jurisdictions.

Reference material

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2024c) Prisoners in Australia, ABS website, accessed 16 June 2025.

ABS (2024d) Prisoners in Australia methodology, ABS website, accessed 16 June 2025.

Productivity Commission (PC) (2025), Socioeconomic outcome area 10, Productivity Commission website, accessed 16 June 2025.