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| This research explores the characteristics of 41 discretionary and 1016 mandatory 1 life sentence prisoners who had served (or were still serving at the time of data collection) sentences of life imprisonment in Scotland. The study includes all mandatory life sentence prisoners convicted between 1 January 1965 and 31 December 1996 (the cut off point for data collection) and all discretionary life sentence prisoners for whom records existed. The study focuses on life sentence prisoners' parole 'careers' in terms of consideration by the Parole Board, release on life licence and recall to custody, their offending careers and the nature of the offences for which they received a life sentence. |
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| Main Findings |
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- Almost all (98%) of the life sentence prisoners were male. Nearly two thirds (63%) of the discretionary lifers were aged 30 or over at the time of conviction compared to just 26% of the mandatory lifers. Over half (55%) of the mandatory lifers were aged between 15 and 24 when convicted. The peak age of conviction for murder was 18.
- The average length of time served by the released discretionary lifers was 15 years and 8 months; the average served by the released mandatory lifers was 11 years and 1 month.
- The average length of time served by mandatory life sentence prisoners has been increasing over time. Those released in 1986 had served an average of 10 years and 4 months; those released in 1996 had served an average of 13 years and 2 months.
- Two discretionary lifers and 111 mandatory lifers (23% of those released) had been recalled to custody following breach of life licence.
- Seventy three percent of discretionary lifers and 53% of mandatory lifers had started offending before the age of 18. Ninety percent of discretionary and 68% of mandatory lifers had acquired at least one previous conviction before receiving their life sentence.
- Almost half (42%) of the discretionary lifers were convicted of offences against more than one victim; only a very small proportion (approx. 4%) of mandatory lifers killed more than one victim, although a further 5 (0.5%) had a second conviction for murder.
- Four of these mandatory lifers committed their second murder while out in the community on life licence. Fifteen of the released mandatory lifers were convicted of further crimes of violence while in the community on life licence.
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| Introduction |
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| The main objectives of this research study were to identify the length of time life sentence prisoners spend in custody under Scottish criminal justice arrangements and to explore the length and nature of their offending careers. |
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| Three data sources were used in the study - the Parole records of all 1057 lifers; the criminal records of all 41 discretionary life sentence prisoners and of 921 (91%) of the mandatory lifers; and information contained in the Homicide Index (created by The Scottish Office in 1978) on 588 (58%) of the mandatory lifers. |
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| Discretionary Life Sentence Prisoners |
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| Discretionary life sentences are very rarely used in Scotland - records were found for just 41 cases (39 males and 2 females). The greatest number of discretionary life sentences imposed in any one year was 5 in 1996. More than half (63%) of the discretionary lifers were aged over 30 at the time of conviction and the majority were convicted of very serious violent and/or sexual offences. |
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| Release on Licence |
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| Up until 1993 the Secretary of State for Scotland was advised on the case for release of discretionary life sentence prisoners by the Preliminary Review Committee (PRC) and thereafter by the Parole Board for Scotland. Sixteen cases had been considered for release by the PRC; 6 had been referred to the Parole Board and 3 had been released. Since 1993 discretionary life sentence cases have been considered by a Discretionary Lifers Tribunal (DLT). At the time of the research 9 cases had been considered by a DLT and 3 had been released. Thus, of the 41 discretionary life sentence prisoners; 35 were in custody having never been released; 2 were in custody having been released on life licence and then recalled; and 4 were in the community on life licence. The 6 discretionary lifers who had been released had served an average of 15 years and 8 months up to the point of their first release. |
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| In 4 out of the 6 released cases the trial judge had set a 'relevant part' (the period which a discretionary lifer is required to serve in the interests of punishment and deterrence) and in each case the discretionary lifer had spent longer in custody on the grounds of risk than the time set. |
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| Offending Careers |
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| Four of the discretionary lifers had no previous convictions while 37 (90%) had a total of 901 previous convictions between them. Almost three quarters (73%) were aged less than 18 at the time of their first conviction, demonstrating that many had lengthy offending careers prior to receiving their life sentence. Of those with previous convictions, three fifths (62%) had previous convictions for non-sexual crimes of violence; half (51%) had previous convictions for indecency and three quarters (78%) had previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty. The average number of previous convictions per person for each of these categories of crimes was 2.1, 2.3 and 19.8 respectively. This demonstrates that as well as having lengthy offending careers, many of the discretionary life sentence prisoners also had prolific and serious offending careers prior to receiving their life sentences. |
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| Two of the discretionary lifers were reconvicted while in custody and one was reconvicted while out in the community on life licence. |
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| Circumstances of Offence |
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| Details of the circumstances of the offences for which the discretionary lifers received their life sentences were analysed in 36 cases. (In 4 cases (2 fire raising and 2 armed robberies) the cases did not involve specific, individual victims and in one case the offender's Parole file containing details of the offence was no longer available.) The 36 discretionary lifers received their life sentences for offences involving a total of 104 victims. The majority of cases (58%) involved just one victim but some cases involved a series of offences committed against numerous victims over a period of time. Seventy percent of the victims were female and more than half of the discretionary lifers (56%) committed their offences against strangers. Over a third (36%) used a sharp instrument in the course of their offences and in three fifths of cases (61%) the motive for the offence was sexual. |
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| Mandatory Life Sentence Prisoners |
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| The mandatory penalty for murder is detention without limit of time for those aged under 18 at the time of conviction, detention for life for those aged between 18 and 21 years and life imprisonment for those aged over 21. Before 1997 the cases of all offenders convicted of murder were handled in the same way by the Parole system irrespective of age at the time of conviction. Hence, the cases of all people convicted of murder were analysed together in the research regardless of age at conviction. A total of 1016 murderers had served, or were still serving, mandatory life sentences in the Scottish prison system between 1 January 1965 (the year in which the death penalty was abolished) and 31 December 1996. Ninety eight percent of the murderers were male and 13% were sentenced to detention without limit of time, having been aged under 18 at the time of conviction. More than half of the mandatory lifers (55%) were aged between 15 and 24 at the time of conviction and 74% were aged less than 30. The peak age of conviction was 18. |
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| Release on Licence |
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| At the time of the research a total of 653 mandatory lifers had had their cases reviewed by the Parole Board. The average length of time between date of sentence and first review was 7 years and 11 months. The Parole Board had recommended the release of 517 mandatory lifers, fewer than a quarter (22%) of whom were recommended for release at their first review. Twenty percent of those who had been released had had 4 or more reviews before being released and a further 58 mandatory lifers had had 4 or more reviews and had still not been recommended for release. |
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| A total of 491 mandatory lifers had been released at some time (a further 26 had been given a release date but had not reached it at the time of the study). The average length of time served by the released mandatory lifers was 11 years and one month. Those who were aged less than 18 at the time of conviction and who had been released had served an average of 10 years and 5 months. The average length of time served by mandatory lifers has been increasing - those released in 1976 had served an average of 9 years 4 months, those released in 1986 averaged 10 years 4 months and those released in 1996 had served an average of 13 years and 2 months. The trial judge had recommended a minimum length of time to be served in the interests of punishment and deterrence in just 4% of cases (N=41). Sixteen of these mandatory lifers had been released on life licence. Eleven had served longer than the recommended minimum period, 2 served exactly the recommended period and 2 had served less than the recommended minimum. |
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| Over three quarters of the released mandatory lifers had never been recalled to custody, however, 111 (23%) had been recalled on at least one occasion; 26 had been recalled twice, 9 three times; 3 four times and 2 five times. One quarter of all recalls to custody occurred within a year of release while almost half (42%) occurred within 2 years of release. The most common reason for recall to custody was 'failure to be of good behaviour and keep the peace'. |
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| Offending Careers |
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| Criminal records were obtained for 921 (91%) of the mandatory lifers. More than half (53%) had started their offending career before the age of 18. The length of offending careers prior to receiving a life sentence ranged from less than one year to 45 years. One third (298) of the mandatory lifers had no previous convictions while 68% had at least one. Between them these 623 mandatory lifers had a total of 8167 previous convictions. The number of previous convictions ranged from 1 to 124, giving an average of 13 per mandatory life sentence prisoner. Just over a quarter (28.5%) had previous convictions for non-sexual crimes of violence; only 9% had previous convictions for crimes of indecency but over two thirds (79%) had previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty. The average number of previous convictions per mandatory lifer for each of these categories of crimes was 1.7, 2.1 and 8.2 respectively. A total of 204 mandatory lifers (22%) had previous convictions for crimes against the person; almost half (45%) had previous convictions for crimes other than those against the person. |
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| Relatively few of the mandatory lifers had previous convictions for drug related offences (7% of all those with previous convictions). More than half of those with previous convictions for crimes of violence (57%), indecency (57%) and drug related offences (66%) had just one previous conviction, whereas fewer than one fifth (18%) of those with previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty had just one previous conviction. Over one quarter (28%) of these offenders had 10 or more previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty. |
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| Fifteen percent (133) of the mandatory lifers were reconvicted while in custody and acquired a total of 359 reconvictions between them. Relatively few (9%) of these reconvictions were for crimes of violence, although one was for a further murder, 2 for attempted murder and 10 for assaults to severe injury. Twenty seven percent (133) of the released mandatory lifers were reconvicted, of a total of 392 offences, while on release on life licence. The majority were convicted of miscellaneous offences (e.g. drunkenness, breach of the peace); just 3% were reconvicted of crimes of violence. Three mandatory lifers were reconvicted of murder while out of prison on licence, bringing the total number of people convicted of more than one murder to 5 (including one who committed a second murder in prison and one who had committed murder prior to 1965 and was included in the sample for his second offence). A further 8 mandatory lifers had previous convictions for culpable homicide or manslaughter. |
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| Circumstances of Offence |
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| The details of 588 mandatory lifers were included in the Homicide Index. Between them they had killed 532 victims, two thirds of whom were male and half of whom were aged under 33 at the time of death. Most murderers (77%) acted alone and most (96%) were convicted of killing one victim. Two thirds of murderers killed people they knew - younger offenders were more likely to kill strangers (49% of those aged 16-20 compared to 13% of those aged over 30). More than half (56%) of the mandatory lifers killed their victim with a sharp instrument; the incidence of shooting was very low at just 6% of cases. The most common reason for the murder (in 38% of cases) was a rage or quarrel; in 13% of cases the offence was motivated by theft or gain. The majority of those whose crimes arose out of a feud, out of jealousy or revenge, or where the motives were sexual killed people with whom they were acquainted. Those whose offences were motivated by theft or gain were more likely (in 62% of cases) to have killed a stranger. Almost half (46%) of the murders in the sample were carried out in a house or dwelling place, while just over one quarter (27%) took place in the street. |
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| 1 A discretionary life sentence is one where the sentencing court has chosen to impose a life sentence from a range of sentencing options at its disposal. A mandatory life sentence is one which the sentencing court is obliged by law to impose following a conviction for murder. |
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This Research Findings paper may be photocopied. Alternatively, further free copies, or information about the Central Research Unit Programme, can be obtained by contacting:
The Scottish Office Central Research Unit
Room J1-0
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
EDINBURGH EH11 3XA
Tel: 0131 244 2112 or Fax: 0131 244 2109 |
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| or from the publications section of The Scottish Office Website: www.scotland.gov.uk |
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| This report can be ordered online from: www.thestationeryoffice.co.uk |
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Copies of the full research report 'Life Sentence Prisoners in Scotland' by Diane Machin, Nicola Coghill and Elizabeth Levy, are also available, priced £3.50, from:
The Stationery Office Bookshop, 71 Lothian Road, EDINBURGH, EH3 9AZ Tel: 0131 228 4181 fax: 0131 622 7017 Quote ISBN No. 0 7480 6192 4 |