VPRS 1491 Court Of Petty Sessions Indexes To Convictions

Indexes to convictions were created in most Courts of Petty Sessions from the 1880's until the 1960's. Throughout this period, various circular instructions from the Law Department to Clerks of Court required them to keep an index by surname to all criminal convictions and orders made at their court. This index allowed clerks to find the entry for a particular case in the Court's register/s. Since the mid 1960's Clerks of Court have not been required to maintain such an index, although a few courts have continued informal indexing systems.Although specially printed index books were provided to all courts, the manner in which the index was kept varied from court to court. The Index usually includes the names and case details of all persons found guilty of a criminal charge under Victorian legislation. Sometimes the Index includes the names and case details of persons found guilty of a criminal charge under Commonwealth legislation. The Index does not usually include references to defendants in criminal matters who were found not guilty, or where the charges were struck out. After 1918 entries for convictions for truancy, non-vaccination, drunkenness and non-attendance at drill (under the Commonwealth Defence Act) were not required to be indexed.Each entry in the index gives details of the name of the convicted person, the date of their conviction and the particulars of the offence (often the name of the Act under which the charge was made is given). Some indexes also give a reference to the case number in the court register.An appraisal of this series found that a number of volumes in this series did not relate to cases heard at the Ballarat Courts. During 2014 the following volumes were removed from this series and reprocessed. Accordingly,- units 1, 3, 4, 5 and 8 were reprocessed to form VPRS 17037/P1, units 1 - 5. (Indexes To Convictions for Ballarat East Courts), and- unit 7 was reprocessed to form VPRS 17038/P1, unit 1 (Index To Convictions for Gordon Courts).19世纪80年代至20世纪60年代，绝大多数治安法院（Courts of Petty Sessions）均编制了定罪记录索引。在此期间，法务部（Law Department）向法院书记官发出的多份通函均要求其按姓氏对本院审理的所有刑事定罪及判令文件编制索引，以便书记官快速检索法院案卷中特定案件的条目。自20世纪60年代中期起，虽无需法院书记官再维护此类索引，但仍有少数法院延续了非正式的索引编制机制。尽管所有法院均配发了专用印制索引簿，但各法院的索引编制方式仍存在差异。该索引通常涵盖依据维多利亚州（Victorian）立法被认定有罪的所有人员的姓名及案件详情；部分情况下，索引也会收录依据联邦（Commonwealth）立法被认定有罪的人员的姓名及案件详情。该索引通常不会收录刑事诉讼中被判无罪或指控被撤销的被告人相关信息。1918年后，逃学、未接种疫苗、醉酒及未参加军训（依据《联邦国防法》（Commonwealth Defence Act））的定罪记录无需编入索引。索引中的每条条目均包含定罪人员姓名、定罪日期及犯罪详情（通常会标注指控所依据的法案名称），部分索引还会标注法院案卷中的案件编号。对该系列档案的评估显示，其中多卷档案与巴拉腊特（Ballarat）法院审理的案件无关。2014年，该系列中的以下卷册被移出并重新加工： - 第1、3、4、5及8单元经重新加工后形成VPRS 17037/P1第1-5单元（巴拉腊特东区法院定罪记录索引）； - 第7单元经重新加工后形成VPRS 17038/P1第1单元（戈登法院定罪记录索引）。