Overall, the number of selected offenses reported or known to the police increased by 2 percent between 1986 and 1987. Offenses against the person increased by 13.8 percent, robbery and extortion offenses by 6.1 percent, and sexual offenses by 21.5 percent. Property offenses showed little change, while drug offenses declined by 33 percent. Most offenses against the person were minor assaults, and robbery offenses were primarily unarmed incidents. More than half the victims of sexual offenses were children. In general, persons apprehended were predominatly young males under 35 years of age. Courts of Summary Jurisdiction in South Australia finalized 28,566 cases during 1987, a 1.4 percent increase over 1986. Driving, drug, and shop theft offenses and offenses against the person accounted for over half of the finalized cases. Nearly 70 percent of the defendants charged in these cases were convicted and received penalties ranging from direct or suspended imprisonment to fines. About 1,300 cases were handled by District and Supreme criminal courts during 1987, and 60 percent of the defendants pleaded guilty as charged. There was an 11.2 percent increase compared with 1986 in the number of new admissions into custody; the average daily number of persons in custody was 853. Of approximately 9,000 appearances before Children's Courts and Children's Aid Panels, about 40 percent were before a court and 60 percent before a panel. Procedural aspects of the criminal justice system in South Australia are noted, and appendixes provide additional information on the compilation of crime statistics. 111 tables.