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2. Key Points
Of the cohort of 46,918 offenders who were discharged from a custodial sentence (5,832) or given a non-custodial sentence (41,086) in 2003-04:
- Eighty-four per cent were male, 24 per cent were aged under 21, 33 per cent had no previous convictions and 17 per cent had over 10 previous convictions (Table 1).
- Twenty-two per cent were reconvicted within 6 months, 33 per cent within one year and 45 per cent within two years (Table 2).
- Males were more likely to be reconvicted than females for all age groups: 46 per cent of males and 38 per cent of females were reconvicted within two years. Males (15 per cent) were nearly twice as likely as females (8 per cent) to receive a custodial reconviction within two years. However, for those persons who are reconvicted at least once within two years, there was little difference between the sexes in the average number of convictions they acquired (Tables 2 & 3).
- Reconviction rates for males decreased by age: 56 per cent of male offenders aged under 21 were reconvicted within two years compared with 36 per cent of those aged over 30. However for females, those aged 21-25 were more likely to be reconvicted than any other age group with 45 per cent being reconvicted within 2 years. Females aged over 30 were much less likely to be reconvicted than younger females (Table 2).
- The likelihood of reconviction increased markedly with the number of previous convictions: 26 per cent of offenders with no previous convictions were reconvicted within two years compared with 75 per cent of offenders with over 10 previous convictions. Of those with over 10 previous custodial convictions, 62 per cent received a further custodial reconviction within two years (Table 4).
- Those discharged from a custodial sentence (64 per cent) or given probation (61 per cent) were on average more likely to be reconvicted within two years than those given community service (39 per cent) or a monetary penalty (41 per cent). However, once the age, sex and number of previous convictions of offenders are taken into account, these differences are less pronounced (Tables 6 & 8).
- For those offenders in the 2003-04 cohort, the younger the offender was at their first conviction the more likely they were to be reconvicted. Almost three quarters (72 per cent) of those offenders aged under 16 at their first conviction are reconvicted within two years compared to just 22 per cent of those aged over 30 at their first conviction.
- Those offenders whose index conviction was for a crime of dishonesty had the highest two year reconviction rate (57 per cent) whilst the lowest was for sexual crime (16 per cent) (Table 6).
A comparison of two-year reconviction rates for the 2003-04 cohort of offenders with those for the corresponding offender cohorts from 1995-96 to 2002-03 shows that:
- The overall reconviction rate was the same for the 2003-04 cohort as it was for the 1995-96 cohort (45 per cent) although the rate did fluctuate in the intervening years. The reconviction rate for males (who make up the majority of the cohort) has remained broadly stable at about 46 per cent, but the female rate rose from 33 to 38 per cent over the same period. This increase is most evident in the rates for female offenders aged between 21 and 30 (Table 12).
- For those with an index disposal of community service, the reconviction rate fell from 49 per cent for the 1995-96 cohort to 39 per cent for the 2003-04 cohort. The corresponding rate for custodial disposals fell by 1 percentage point and probationary index disposals fell by 3 percentage points (Table 13).
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