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17. Characteristics of persons receiving community sentences (Tables 90 to 101)
17.1 The information presented in the previous sections was provided to the Scottish Executive in aggregate returns from local authorities throughout Scotland or by Reliance Monitoring Services. This section provides contextual information from the Scottish Executive Court Proceedings database on convictions resulting in a community sentence, convictions for breaching a community sentence and reconvictions of offenders who have received community sentences. This data is not directly comparable to the criminal justice social work figures presented in the previous sections since it is derived from a different system and relates to a different time period.
17.2 In 2004-05, 16,952 convictions in Scottish Courts resulted in a community sentence, an increase of 9 per cent on the 15,557 convictions which resulted in a community sentence in 2003-04. The majority of these involved males (84 per cent) and persons aged 25 or under (52 per cent). Over half (55 per cent) resulted in a Probation Order and just under a third (32 per cent) in a Community Service Order. For comparison, the statistical bulletin Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2004/05, shows that a further 16,531 convictions resulted in a custodial sentence.
17.3 These 16,952 convictions resulting in a community sentence relate to 7,574 individual offenders. Just over one quarter (26 per cent) of these individuals had no previous convictions, 25 per cent had 1 or 2 previous convictions, 34 per cent had 3 to 10 previous convictions and 15 per cent had over 10. Twenty-four per cent had at least one previous custodial conviction, 44 per cent had at least one previous community conviction and 42 per cent had at least one previous conviction for crimes of dishonesty.
17.4 In 2004-05, individual offenders who received probation had on average 5.3 previous convictions and those who received community service (including a small number of individuals who received supervised attendance orders) had an average of 3.4 previous convictions. Those receiving a restriction of liberty order or a drug treatment and testing order had averages of 6.9 and 16.6 previous convictions respectively.
17.5 Individuals in the total cohort of offenders who received community sentences in 2004-05, had on average 5.0 previous convictions, 1.2 previous custodial convictions, 1.2 previous community convictions and 2.2 previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty.
17.6 In 2004-05, there were 5,280 proceedings for breach of a community sentence which resulted in a charge proved, 4 per cent higher than the figure of 5,079 in 2003-04. Eighty-five per cent of these involved males and 61 per cent involved those aged under 25.
17.7 Breaches of a probation order accounted for 63 per cent (3,341) of proceedings with a charge proved for breaching a community sentence in 2004-05. A further 29 per cent of proceedings had a charge proved for breaching a community service order, 5 per cent for breaching a RLO or a DTTO and 3 per cent for breaching a supervised attendance order.
17.8 Of these 5,280 proceedings with a charge proved, 32 per cent resulted in a custodial sentence, 15 per cent in probation, 11 per cent in community service and 5 per cent in an RLO or DTTO. The remaining 37 per cent resulted in a monetary penalty, other or unknown sentence. Proceedings for breaching a SAO or a RLO or DTTO were most likely to receive a custodial penalty (52 per cent and 39 per cent respectively). Proceedings involving males (34 per cent) were more likely than those involving females (22 per cent) to receive a custodial sentence as their main penalty.
17.9 Proceedings for breaching a community service order which resulted in a custodial penalty had an average length of custodial sentence of 94 days in 2004-05, an increase on the 2003-04 figure of 82 days. The average custodial sentence length was 95 days for breaching a probation order, 103 days for breaching an RLO or DTTO and 27 days for breaching a supervised attendance order.
17.10 The statistics release ' Reconvictions of offenders discharged from custody or given non-custodial sentences in 2002/03, Scotland' considers two year reconviction rates broken down by the age and sex of offenders, sentence type and the main crime for which they are convicted. This showed that, for offenders discharged from custody or given non-custodial sentences in 2002/03, 45 per cent were reconvicted within two years. For the subset of this cohort who were given a community penalty in 2002/03 the rates were 42 per cent for Community Service (including SAOs) and 63 per cent for Probation (including RLOs and DTTOs). This represents an increase of 4 percentage points for Probation and 3 percentage points for the overall reconviction rate since 1998/99, whilst the rate for Community Service has remained stable over this period. For the subset of the 2002/03 cohort who were given a custodial sentence the two year rate of reconviction was 64 per cent.
17.11 Males were more likely to be reconvicted than females for all age groups. Forty-seven per cent of males and 37 per cent of females were reconvicted within two years. In particular for the subset with a main penalty of Community Service, 44 per cent of males were reconvicted within two years compared to 30 per cent of females. For Probation this difference is less pronounced, with 63 per cent of males being reconvicted within two years compared to 61 per cent of females.
17.12 The likelihood of reconviction increases markedly with the number of previous convictions. For the cohort subset who received Community Service, 27 per cent of offenders who had no previous convictions were reconvicted within two years compared to 73 per cent who had over ten previous convictions. Of those with over 10 previous custodial convictions 48 per cent received a further custodial sentence within two years. Similarly for Probation, 41 per cent of those with no previous convictions and 83 per cent of those with over 10 previous convictions were reconvicted within two years.
17.13 Reconviction rates for each order varied depending on the type of crime in the original conviction. For those in the probation subset, 24 per cent of those with a sexual index crime were reconvicted within two years compared to 76 per cent of those whose index crime was a crime of dishonesty.
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