Table 1.

Sociodemographic characteristics by group

Sociodemographic demographics	Total n (%)a n = 413	Women n (%)a		p-value
		Return-to-custody within two years (RTC) group n = 166 (40.2%)	Did not return-to-custody within two years (No-RTC) group n = 238 (59.8%)
Mean age (SD)	34.0 (7.8)	32.8 (7.3)	34.8 (8.1)	0.05
Country of birth
Australia	361 (92.1)	147 (91.9)	214 (92.2)	0.89
Overseas	31 (7.8)	11 (7.3)	20 (8.0)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Status
Indigenous	118 (32.8)	64 (41.0)	54 (26.5)	0.04
Non-Indigenous	242 (67.2)	92 (59.0)	150 (73.5)
Marital status
Never Married	234 (60.3)	100 (62.1)	134 (59.0)	0.69
Married/Defacto/Regular partner	112 (28.9)	46 (28.6)	66 (29.1)
Divorced/Separated/Widowed	42 (10.8)	15 (9.3)	27 (11.9)
Education attainment
No school certificate (did not complete high school)	340 (86.1)	152 (94.4)	188 (80.3)	< 0.01
High School Certificate (completed high school)	31 (7.8)	5 (3.1)	26 (11.1)
Tertiary education (post high school qualified)	24 (6.1)	4 (2.5)	20 (8.5)
Employment history
Have been previously employed	286 (73.5)	109 (66.9)	177 (78.3)	0.01
Never previously employed	1036 (26.5)	54 (33.1)	49 (21.7)
Parent status
Yes	298 (76.8)	127 (78.9)	171 (75.3)	0.41
No	90 (22.3)	34 (21.1)	56 (24.7)
Drug problem (prior to current incarceration)
Yes	327 (83.6)	145 (89.5)	182 (79.5)	0.01
No	64 (16.4)	17 (10.5)	47 (20.5)
Prior to this incarceration, women received treatment by a psychiatrist/doctor or Community Mental Health team for a mental health problem?
Yes	284 (73.0)	116 (71.6)	168 (74.0)	0.60
No	105 (27.0)	46 (28.4)	59 (26.0)

^aThose who did not answer or refused to answer were removed from analysis; as a result, total numbers do not equal total number of women but total number of people who answered each question

^b Nine women’s’ RTC status was missing; as a result, the group numbers do not equal the total number of women included