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3. Sentencing Profiles
Introduction
3.1 This section provides profiles of sentencing decisions in the sheriff and district courts. As well as complementing the earlier information on the financial implications of sentencing decisions, the purposes of publishing sentencing information are to improve clarity and consistency in sentencing practice and to inform wider debate on the criminal justice system.
3.2 The information provided by sentencing profiles must be interpreted with some caution since it does not allow for any underlying differences in the workload and case mix dealt with by each court.
3.3 The data on which these profiles are based rely on information supplied by the Scottish Criminal Record Office ( SCRO) to the Scottish Executive. Although every attempt has been made to ensure that the information is reliable, the data collected are subject to the errors which may arise in any large scale recording system; there are around 150,000 persons proceeded against in courts each year. Particular care should be taken when interpreting information for courts where the total number of cases is small. Any comments on court proceedings information which seems out of line with local knowledge would be most helpful since they may assist in reducing errors in the future. An address has been provided at the end of this publication.
3.4 At the request of users and data providers, consulted throughthe SCOTSTAT Crime and Justice Committee, SEJD Criminal Justice statistics have been changed to present information on a financial year basis.
3.5 The following information is provided:
a). The numbers and percentages of persons with a charge proved who were given custody, community service, probation and a fine, by type of court, i.e. High, sheriff solemn, sheriff summary, stipendiary magistrate and district. In addition information is supplied on the distribution of amount of fine and custodial sentence length imposed by each court type.
b). Information for persons sentenced in Sheriff Solemn Courts and the Stipendiary Magistrates Court by crime group and type of sentence is given in tables 3 and 5 respectively.
c). Fuller information is provided for sheriff summary and district courts. Information on these is given by individual courts. For the sheriff summary courts, information on the use of custody, community service, probation and fines is provided for each court for the following crime/offence categories:
All crimes and offences
Housebreaking
Theft
Other dishonesty
Common assault
Breach of the peace
Dangerous/careless driving
Drunk driving
Unlawful use of a vehicle.
d). Information on the use of custody, probation, fines and admonishment
is included for each district court for the following crime/offence categories:
All crimes and offences
Theft
Common assault
Breach of the peace
Speeding
Unlawful use of a vehicle
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