The vast majority of crimes in Victoria are sentenced by the Magistrates’ Court. Until now, it has been difficult for the public to know about patterns of sentencing in that court. In 2013, BRYG Group build SACStat, a free online tool that provides detailed but accessible information for over 430 different types of offences.

Below the Honourable Robert Clarke, Attorney-General, Minister for Finance and Minister for Industrial Relations comments on the solution.

The product utilised the latest technologies supported by Open Source components where possible to deliver the greatest value-for-money and the BRYK Group Quality Methodology was adopted in the delivery of this project which resulted in fast release cycles and few reported defects.

SACStat allows users to view graphs and tables displaying historical sentencing data for over 430 offence types heard in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria. It enabled cleaned and checked data to be publicly accessible through a simple and intuitive graphical interface. In doing so, it achieved two vital public benefits. It made sentencing:

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more consistent, because for the first time it makes it possible for each magistrate to see how other magistrates (of which there are more than 100) are sentencing for similar offences; and

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more transparent to journalists, victims of crime, offenders and the general public.

Below Professor Arie Freiberg discusses the importance of the SACStat solution.