VPRS 8778 Court of Petty Sessions/Magistrates' Court Index to Convictions

This series consists of indexes to convictions registers created by the Court of Petty Sessions at St Kilda. Indexes to Convictions were created in most Courts of Petty Sessions from the 1880s until the 1960s. Throughout this period, various circular instructions from the Law Department to Clerks of Courts required them to keep an index by surname of convicted person 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. Since the mid 1960s Clerks of Courts have not been required to maintain such an index, although a few courts have continued to use 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.

本系列数据集涵盖圣基尔达（St Kilda）简易裁判法院（Court of Petty Sessions）所编制的定罪登记册索引。自19世纪80年代至20世纪60年代，绝大多数简易裁判法院均编制了定罪登记索引。在此期间，法务部向各法院书记员发出的多份通函指示，要求其按照定罪者的姓氏，对本院作出的所有刑事定罪判决与裁定编制索引。此类索引可帮助书记员快速检索法院登记册中对应个案的条目。自20世纪60年代中期起，法院书记员不再被要求维护此类索引，尽管仍有少数法院继续采用非正式的索引编制体系。尽管所有法院均配发了专用印刷索引簿，但各法院的索引保存方式仍存在差异。