Mandatory sentencing legislation was introduced in the Northern Territory in March 1997. It provides that where adults are convicted of property offences, the court must impose a sentence of imprisonment of a minimum of 14 days.

For a second offence, the minimum penalty is three months and for a third offence, the minimum penalty if 12 months. Where a juvenile, aged between 15 and 17, is convicted of a second property offence, the court must impose a sentence of detention of a minimum of 28 days. Property offences include stealing (but not shoplifting), criminal damage, receiving, unlawful use of a motor vehicle and unlawful entry.

The full impact of the legislation has not yet been felt, but of four known cases in which women have been sentenced to jail in the NT, none would have been imprisoned had mandatory sentencing not applied. There is no evidence that the legislation has caused any decrease in property crime rates (the government's stated aim). Because property offences as a higher proportion of offences committed by women than they are for men, mandatory sentencing will have a greater impact on women.

Traditionally, women have received more lenient sentences than men. There are many reasons for this, including that women defendants often have more mitigating circumstances such as economic hardship and responsibility for children. Courts have also suggested that a more lenient sentence is given because women are less likely to re-offend. In 1994-5, approximately 25 women were imprisoned for property offences in the NT.

During the same period, however, 206 women were convicted of offences to which mandatory sentencing now applies. If these offending rates continue, the rate at which women are imprisoned will increase at least sixfold. For indigenous women, in particular, this will be a disaster. Even before mandatory sentencing, Aboriginal women in the NT were 10 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Aboriginal women. For more information, contact Jenny Hardy at the Top End Women's Legal Service. Jenny Hardy - Darwin