Manslaughter

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This report is part of the Sentencing Spotlight series. These publications present statistics on sentencing outcomes for offences finalised in Queensland courts.

Our Sentencing Spotlight on manslaughter, defined under section 303 of the Criminal Code, provides insight into cases sentenced between July 2005 and June 2016.

Our research found:

• a total of 224 offenders were sentenced for manslaughter as their most serious offence
• 216 were adults and 8 were aged under 17 years at the time of the offence
• all offenders sentenced for manslaughter received a custodial penalty. The vast majority (92.0%) received an immediate prison sentence, with the remaining offenders receiving either a partially suspended sentence (6.2%) or a wholly suspended sentence (1.8%)
• 8 years was the most common period of imprisonment imposed
• the majority of offenders sentenced for manslaughter were male (83.5%)
• the average age of offenders at time of sentencing was 34.3 years; the average age of male offenders was 33.9 years and female offenders 36.7 years
• in the majority of cases (70.5%) the offender was known to the victim in some way
• the majority of offenders entered a plea of guilty (75.5%)
• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders comprised 21.4% of offenders.

Read the media release