2.6 Prison sentenced snapshot trend by offence category

For more details see: data source and enrichment methodology; data spreadsheet ; offence category.

The graph above indicates that, thirty years ago, dishonesty offenders predominated in the prison population. However, over the intervening period, much of the growth has been driven by an accumulation of those sentenced for violent and sexual offending, with drug offender counts also rising sharply in recent years.

The relative proportions of numbers in each offence category (as indicated above) reflects the process whereby more serious offences result in longer sentences, which lead to higher rates of accumulation in the prison system, due to the length of time served.