A new report from the Sentencing Advisory Council found the trend is also leading to an increase in older prisoners in Victoria.
The Sentencing Advisory Council’s report examined more than 30,000 offenders sentenced when aged 60 and over during the past decade.
These ‘older offenders’ accounted for 4 per cent of all cases in the Magistrates’ Court and 6 per cent of all cases in the higher courts.
Council chair, Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg, said the research showed the pursuit of historic sex offences had led to more older offenders coming before the courts.
Sixty-seven per cent of older sex offenders faced justice 10 years or more after the offending occurred, with almost one in five (18 per cent) sentenced 40 years or more after the offending.
“Courts in Victoria have consistently said that if you offend against children, the passage of time will not prevent the criminal justice system from holding you to account for what you have done. That is also what this report shows,” he said.
In the Magistrates’ Court the number of cases involving older people annually rose from 2523 in 2010 to 4645 in 2019.
The report found this was mainly caused by an almost doubling of cases of traffic/vehicle offences involving older offenders.
Professor Freiberg said the challenging of traffic and vehicle offence might reflect the lack of capacity many older people had to pay fines.
“For someone on a pension, an infringement penalty can represent a substantial amount of money. That is part of why we previously recommended reduced infringement penalties for people experiencing financial hardship,” he said.
The number of older people sentenced to imprisonment each year between 2010 and 2019 more than doubled (from 94 to 200 cases), which the report said partly explained Victoria’s aging prison population.
