Conflict between indigenous people and settlers

From the days of early British settlement in Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) (1803 onwards) until 1832, there was a period of violent conflict between the colonists and Aboriginal Australians, spiralling into an era which became known as the Black War in the 1820s, partly driven by increasing competition for kangaroo and other game.^[3][4] Explorer and naval officer John Oxley in 1810 noted the "many atrocious cruelties" inflicted on Aboriginals by convict bushrangers in the north, which in turn led to black attacks on solitary white hunters.^[5]

There was a number of massacres of Aboriginal Australians during this time, notably the Cape Grim massacre of 1828, in which a group of Aboriginal Tasmanians gathering food at a beach in the north-west of Tasmania is said to have been ambushed and shot by four Van Diemen's Land Company (VDLC) workers.

Penal settlement

From the 1800s to 1853, Van Diemen's Land was the primary penal colony in Australia. Following the suspension of transportation to New South Wales, all transported convicts were sent there; in total, about 73,000 convicts, or about 40%, of all convicts sent to Australia.^[6]

Complaints from Victorians about recently released convicts from Van Diemen's Land re-offending in Victoria was one of the contributing reasons for the eventual abolition of transportation to Van Diemen's Land in 1853.^[7]

Statistics

There were few reliable crime statistics recorded before 1824, partly because population counts did not include indigenous people nor all military officials, although both of these could be counted as offenders and victims. The law was then a hybrid of British law and military law. Local magistrates dealt with minor infringements and most convicts' offences, with more serious crime being dealt with in the New South Wales Court of Criminal Jurisdiction. Magistrates also managed policing, sentencing and recording within their districts. Much of the recorded crime was committed by convicts, and some of the categories are no longer relevant, such as bushranging and convicts absconding; also, some activities then considered acceptable are now criminal offences, under the Criminal Code (Tasmania) 1924. In 1823 the Supreme Court of Van Diemen's Land was created under the New South Wales Act 1823 and began operating in 1824.^[8]

Police magistrates started getting paid in 1827. In the early years, the rate of conviction for crimes which demanded the death penalty (murder, bushranging, sheep and cattle stealing, housebreaking) was higher than corresponding rates in New South Wales. Rates of drunkenness and general misdemeanour among convicts were high but conviction rates for these gradually declined.^[8]

After transportation to Van Diemen's Land ended in the 1850s, the colony was renamed Tasmania and its legal institutions moved away from the military model and began to develop characteristics of a civil justice system. Crime rates declined towards the end of the century.^[8]

Crime and Punishment in the Colonies: A Statistical Profile (1986)^[9] collates crime statistics for Tasmania from 1875, and shows a steep decline towards the end of the century in both the Supreme and magistrates' courts. Crime rates peaked in the late 1870s (about 3,600 convictions per 100,000 people), reducing to about 1500 by the late 1890s.^[8]

Outlaw motorcycle gangs

There were six outlaw motorcycle gangs in Tasmania with 18 chapters and about 259 members.^[12]

Domestic violence

The number of family violence incidents continued to increase, with 3,385 incidents recorded.^[12]

Youth crime

In 2018, concerns were raised about the young age of many offenders, with gang members being children as young as 12 years old. Tasmania Police Assistant Commissioner Glenn Frame said that 12-year-olds were now committing crimes such as stealing cars, rather than 17- to 18-year-olds. 2017-8 crime statistics showed that children were responsible for 29.4% of all home burglaries, 41.8% of all car break-ins, 23.4% of all business burglaries, 24.4% of all car thefts, 12.9% of assaults and 15.3% of all serious crime. Police subsequently made juvenile one of their key priorities, which included involvement of other government agencies such as education, justice and children's services. Former Chief Magistrate Michael Hill has advocated more therapeutic approaches to juvenile justice, agreeing that there was a need to get into the minds of at-risk children early, before they came before the courts.^[13]