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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-09-26 Daily Xml
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CRIME STATISTICS

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:05): I seek leave to give a short explanation before asking a question of the minister representing the Attorney-General.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: I have conducted a survey of all sentencing decisions in criminal cases in the District and Supreme courts over the three months of June, July and August this year, and I took a note of all the cases where the sentencing judge referred to 'past illicit drug use' or 'frequent use', as it turned out, by the offender. The result was that, in almost two-thirds of the cases, there was a history of personal drug use and, in most cases, extensively so. The main drugs used were methylamphetamine and, to a lesser extent, cannabis.

I emphasise that these are various types of serious offences dealt with in the higher courts, obviously, and specifically excludes the Magistrates Court and that the information about the history of drug use that I have obtained was actually from the sentencing remarks themselves. I have no doubt that the actual number of drug users amongst defendants being sentenced was actually much higher than those who were prepared to admit to this in court (it would stand to reason that some were not prepared to admit drug use in court), so the two-thirds figure substantially underplays the reality, I am sure.

The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that there is a strong connection between drug use and the commission of serious criminal offences. My questions to the government are:

1. What statistics does the government have as to the percentage of serious criminals who have a history of illicit drug use prior to or around the time of their offending?

2. Does the government accept that there is a statistical connection between illicit drug use with drugs such as methylamphetamine and serious criminal conduct?

3. What step is the government taking as a result of the statistical link in order to address the situation?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (15:06): I thank the honourable member for his important questions and will refer them to the Attorney-General in another place and bring back a response.

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