The Scottish Government

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SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS

This research explores the characteristics of offenders who had served (or were still serving at the time of data collection) sentences of life imprisonment in Scotland. The main objectives of the 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. Information on parole 'careers' in terms of consideration by the Parole Board, release on licence and recall to prison was extracted from parole records while information on previous and subsequent convictions and the length of offending careers was obtained from individuals' criminal records.

Discretionary life sentence prisoners

• Records held by the Parole and Miscarriages Review Division of The Scottish Office Home Department showed that between 1963 and 1996 41 prisoners (39 males and 2 females) had been received into custody in Scotland with a discretionary life sentence.
• Of these 41 discretionary lifers, 37 were in custody on 31 December 1996 (the cut off point for data collection), including 2 who had been released and then recalled, and 4 were in the community on life licence.
• The average length of time served (up to the point of first release) by the 6 released discretionary lifers was 15 years and 8 months, although actual time served ranged from 6 years 2 months to 22 years 5 months.
• In 4 out of the 6 released cases, the judge set a 'relevant part' (the period which a discretionary lifer is required to serve in the interest of punishment and deterrence) and in each case the discretionary lifer served longer in custody on grounds of risk than the time set.
• Six discretionary lifers who had served their 'relevant part' but had not been released at the time of the research had served periods ranging from 1 year to 6 years 2 months over and above the minimum time set.
• Two discretionary life sentence prisoners had been recalled to custody following breach of life licence (in one case the discretionary lifer was recalled 1 year and 8 months after original release and in the other case only 24 days after release).
• Four (10%) of the discretionary lifers had no previous convictions; 37 (90%) had acquired at least one previous conviction before receiving their life sentence. Almost three quarters (73%) had started their offending careers before reaching the age of 18.
• Between them these 37 discretionary life sentence prisoners had a total of 901 previous convictions; 23 (62%) had previous convictions for non-sexual crimes of violence; 19 (51%) for crimes of indecency and 29 (78%) for crimes of dishonesty.
• Two of the discretionary life sentence prisoners were reconvicted while in custody and one was reconvicted while out in the community on life licence.
• Almost half (42%) of the discretionary life sentence prisoners were convicted of offences against more than one victim and the majority of the victims (70%) were female.
• More than half (56%) of the discretionary lifers offended against strangers and 13 harmed their victims with a sharp instrument.

Mandatory life sentence prisoners

• The Parole and Miscarriages Review Division of The Scottish Office Home Department held records for 1016 prisoners (1000 males and 16 females) who had received a mandatory life sentence for murder between 1 January 1965 and 31 December 1996.
• Of these 1016 mandatory life sentence prisoners: 494 were in custody having never been released; 415 were in the community on life licence; 40 were in custody following revocation of life licence; 3 were awaiting the Parole Board' s decision on recall; 1 had been recalled but had not been apprehended at the time of the research; 1 had received a Queen' s Pardon and 62 were known to have died.
• More than half (55%) of the mandatory life sentence prisoners were aged between 15 and 24 years at the time of conviction; almost three quarters (74%) were aged less than 30. The peak age of conviction was 18 years.
• By 31 December 1996, 653 of the mandatory lifers in the sample had had their cases reviewed by the Parole Board on at least one occasion, 517 of whom had been recommended for release.
• Of those 517 mandatory lifers recommended for release by the Parole Board, 491 had been released and 26 were due to be released.
• The average length of time served by the 491 prisoners who had actually been released at the time of the study was 11 years and 1 month. The average length of time served by released prisoners who were aged under 18 years at the time of conviction and sentenced to detention without limit of time was 10 years and 5 months.
• The average length of time served by mandatory life sentence prisoners before first release has been increasing over time. For mandatory lifers released in 1996 the average length of time served was 13 years and 2 months, compared to 10 years and 4 months for those released in 1986.
• In 41 cases the trial judge had recommended a minimum length of time to be served in the interests of punishment and deterrence. Twenty five mandatory lifers were subject to the Secretary of State's Twenty Year Policy (see footnote 6), 9 of whom were also subject to a minimum recommendation made by the trial judge. Nineteen of these lifers had been released, 16 of whom served at least or in excess of the period recommended and 3 of whom served less than the minimum period.
• Of the 491 lifers in the sample who had been released at some point, 111 (23%) had been recalled to custody on at least one occasion; 26 on a second occasion; 9 on a third occasion; 3 on a fourth occasion and 2 on a fifth occasion.
• Two hundred and ninety eight (32%) of the 921 mandatory lifers whose criminal records were obtained had no previous convictions; 623 (68%) had at least one previous conviction before their conviction for murder. More than half (53%) of the mandatory lifers had started offending before the age of 18.
• Just over one quarter (28.5%) of those mandatory lifers with previous convictions had previous convictions for crimes of violence, including 8 who had previous convictions for culpable homicide or manslaughter; 9% had previous convictions for crimes of indecency and 79% had previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty.
• One hundred and thirty six lifers whose criminal histories were obtained acquired reconvictions in custody, 25 of whom were reconvicted of crimes of violence.
• One hundred and thirty three mandatory lifers were reconvicted whilst out in the community on licence; 15 were reconvicted of non-sexual crimes of violence.
• A total of 5 mandatory life sentence prisoners had a second conviction for murder: one committed his first offence prior to 1965; one committed his second offence while in prison serving a life sentence for his original offence; and 3 committed their second offences while released from prison on life licence.
• The details of 588 mandatory lifers were contained in the Scottish Office Homicide Index which dates back to 1978. Only a very small proportion of these lifers (3.5%) had murdered more than one victim.
• Almost half (46%) killed an acquaintance while a further 20% killed someone to whom they were related either by birth or through marriage; 56% killed with a sharp instrument and 38% killed in the course of a rage or quarrel.

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