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‘Diversion works,’ says new Sentencing Advisory Council report
The Sentencing Advisory Council in Victoria has released a new report analysing the utilisation of the Criminal Justice Diversion Program (CJDP) within the state’s Magistrates Court over a 10-year period.
Grace Robbie
Last week, the Victoria-based Sentencing Advisory Council published The Criminal Justice Diversion Program in Victoria: Second Statistical Profile, which provides a detailed examination of the utilisation of the diversion program from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2021.
The diversion initiative involves suspending a defendant’s legal proceedings for a maximum of 12 months to allow them to fulfil a specific diversion plan. This plan includes specific conditions such as issuing an apology to the victim, providing compensation to the victim, completing an educational program, or undergoing counselling or treatment.
To be eligible for the CJDP, the report outlined that “the defendant must acknowledge responsibility for the offending, the offending must not preclude the defendant from accessing the CJDP, the court must consider it appropriate to make the order, and the prosecution and the defendant must consent”.
At the conclusion of the 12-month period, if the defendant has satisfactorily fulfilled all conditions outlined in their diversion plan, “they can avoid having a criminal record for the offending”. However, failure to adhere to the diversion plan to the court’s satisfaction will result in the continuation of the matter as a contested issue.
The latest report provides an update to the 2008 report from the Sentence Advisory Council, focusing on the diversion plans within the Magistrates Court, the demographics of the recipients, and the associated conditions.
The new report examined the same subject areas while also delving into trends over the period since the previous report, examining the use of diversion plans in cases related to family violence offences, and analysing the prior criminal activities and reoffending rates of individuals undergoing diversion plans.
According to the latest report by the CJDP, there has been a steady increase in the use of diversion plans over the past decade, with nearly 51,000 individuals benefiting from this alternative approach. Notably, the proportion of diversion plans has increased from 5.4 per cent of all cases finalised in 2011–12 to 6.6 per cent of cases by 2020–21. This indicates a growing recognition and acceptance of their effectiveness.
The report revealed that 93 per cent of participants successfully completed the diversion plans they received during the 2011–2021 period. This marks an increase from the previous report’s findings, which revealed that 91.3 per cent of diversion plans were successfully completed.
In terms of reoffending rates, the latest report shows that about one in five people (21 per cent) who completed a diversion plan were sentenced for subsequent offences five years later. In contrast, nearly 40 per cent of those who received other court outcomes were re-sentenced within the same time frame.
The latest CJDP report highlighted that female offenders were statistically more likely to receive diversion plans than males, with the report indicating that 8.7 per cent of female offenders received a diversion plan, while only 5.2 per cent of male offenders received one. These findings are consistent with the council’s 2008 analysis, which also showed a disparity in diversion plan rates, with 11 per cent of female offenders compared to 6.4 per cent of male offenders receiving such plans.
Analysis contained within the report revealed that young individuals (aged 18 to 19) and older adults (aged 65 and over) were more likely to receive diversion plans.
It also revealed that diversion plans were commonly linked to property offences, such as theft and criminal damage, while traffic offences were less frequently diverted due to mandatory penalties, such as driver’s licence suspensions or disqualification.
Sentencing Advisory Council CEO Dr Paul McGorrery underscored how the report validates the effectiveness of diversion programs in Victoria’s justice system.
“This report confirms what many people working in the justice system already know from their own personal experience: diversion works. It has become an increasingly common outcome of criminal proceedings in Victoria. It has consistently maintained exceptionally high successful completion rates. And people receiving diversion plans are half as likely to reoffend as people receiving other court outcomes,” he said.
“The cost-effectiveness of diversion plans, coupled with lower reoffending rates, suggests that diversion plans have the potential to reduce both the human and financial costs of crime to all Victorians. Collectively, these findings offer potent support for the effectiveness of diversion plans in appropriate cases.”
