Reoffending is a major contributor to the growing prison population in NSW. A small group of persistent offenders, many of whom have multiple and complex needs, will have continued and frequent contact with the justice system across their life-course. These patterns of contact are often intergenerational and to improve outcomes and break the cycle of reoffending requires strategic thinking about what works to address these needs.

The NSW Reoffending Database (ROD) contains information on each person who has been convicted of a criminal offence in NSW since 1994 and is used by BOCSAR to determine the proportion of offenders who have been reconvicted for a further offence.​ This tool looks at two measures of reoffending:

1. ​What percentage of people with a proven finalised court appearance (without a custodial penalty), completed Youth Justice Conference or Police caution under the Young Offenders Act reoffend within the next 12 months?
   
2. What percentage of people released from sentenced custody reoffend within the next 12 months?
   
   

Data file: Reoffending in NSW (XLSX, 99.1 KB)

The Excel files provides further information on:

1. Number of distinct young people with either a proven court appearance (without a custodial penalty), Youth Justice Conference or a police caution by whether they reoffended within 12 months
2. Number of distinct young people released from sentenced custody by whether they reoffended within 12 months
3. Number of distinct adults with a proven court appearance (without a custodial penalty) by whether they reoffended within 12 months
4. Number of distinct adults released from sentenced custody by whether they reoffended within 12 months

The next update will be available: June 2026