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2 Key Points for 2007/08
Court proceedings
- A total of 148,800 persons were proceeded against in court, a decrease of ½ per cent on 2006/07, although still higher than the totals for all of the last seven years prior to 2006/07.
Verdicts
- Eighty-nine per cent of persons proceeded against in court had at least one charge proved against them or a plea of guilty accepted.
Convictions
- The total number of people convicted was 133,100, a decrease of 1 per cent compared with 2006/07. Of these, 60 per cent took place in sheriff summary courts.
- The number of persons convicted in the district (including Justice of the Peace) and stipendiary magistrates courts in 2007/08 (47,200) showed a small decrease of 2 per cent compared with 2006/07, but was 18 per cent smaller than in 1998/99.
- The number of persons with a charge proved for non-sexual crimes of violence rose by 12 per cent from 2,400 to 2,700 while numbers convicted of crimes of indecency fell by 9 per cent from 862 to 785.
Sentences
- The majority (83,100 or 62 per cent) of all convictions resulted in a financial penalty. Most of these were fines, although there were also 1,300 compensation orders issued. The average amount of fine imposed was £220 (excluding fines imposed upon companies). The average value of compensation orders imposed was £331.
- The number of custodial sentences imposed by courts was just under 16,700, the second largest figure recorded during the last 10 years, and almost exactly the same as in 2006/07. Seventy six per cent of all custodial sentences were for six months or less.
- The average length of determinate custodial sentences in 2007/08 was around eight months, 16 days (7 per cent) higher than in 2006/07. For crimes of handling an offensive weapon, average sentences rose by 35 per cent over this period, from 161 days to 217 days.
- The number of convictions resulting in a community sentence was 16,700, 4 per cent higher than in 2006/07. Community sentences mainly comprised sentences of a probation order (9,000) or a community service order (5,600).
- Female offenders accounted for 15 per cent of all convictions, 8 per cent of custodial convictions, 17 per cent of community sentences, 15 per cent of monetary sentences and 26 per cent of other sentences (mainly admonitions).
Characteristics of individual offenders
- Of the 53,300 individuals convicted at least once in 2007/08 for a crime or relevant offence, 65 per cent had at least one such previous conviction in the previous ten years, while 12 per cent had over ten such previous convictions.
- The peak age for conviction for males was 18, with 7 per cent of 18 year old males in the Scottish population convicted of a crime or relevant offence (such as common assault or breach of the peace) on at least one occasion during 2007/08.
Bail orders made
- There were 60,700 bail orders made by Scottish courts in 2007/08, a decrease of just under 3 per cent from 2006/07, although 30 per cent higher than in 2002/03.
- Males accounted for over 80 per cent of all orders made in 2007/08. In addition, most bail orders made by courts (90 per cent) were issued at Sheriff courts.
Offences committed while on bail
- Sixteen per cent of offences with a charge proved in 2007/08 had a bail aggravator recorded against them, indicating that these offences were committed while the offender was on bail. This is an increase of one percentage point from 2006/07.
- Crime and offence categories where the highest proportion of offenders were on bail were shoplifting (39 per cent), housebreaking and crimes against public justice (both 32 per cent), robbery and theft by opening a lockfast place (both 29 per cent).
- Crimes and offences with a relatively low percentage of offenders on bail included most motor vehicle offences (particularly speeding (1 per cent) and vehicle defect offences (2 per cent)), as well as lewd and indecent behaviour (4 per cent) and rape and attempted rape (5 per cent).
Motor vehicle offences
- The total number of motor vehicle offences recorded by the police was 347,600, a decrease of 7 per cent on the total for 2006/07. Speeding offences accounted for 40 per cent of these offences.
- The police made an estimated 219,700 conditional offers of a fixed penalty, a decrease of 2 per cent compared with 2006/07. Sixty per cent of the offers related to speeding offences.
- The number of motor vehicle offences which resulted in a charge proved in court in 2007/08 was 65,700, 2 per cent lower than in 2006/07. A fine was the most common penalty, imposed for 82 per cent of charges proved or accepted. In addition to the main penalty imposed, 51 per cent of offences resulted in an endorsement of the offender's driving licence.
- The average fine imposed for motor vehicle offences with a charge proved was £189, while the average length of driving ban imposed was 19 months.
- An estimated 93,500 fixed penalty notices were issued by the police for stationary vehicle offences, 62 per cent of which were for parking and waiting offences and 32 per cent for failing to display a road tax disc. The total number of fixed penalty notices decreased by 11 per cent compared with 2006/07. Much of the long term decrease in the number of notices issued in recent years reflects the decriminalisation of parking infringements in particular areas.
- The total number of penalty charge notices for parking infringements issued in 2007/08 by those councils which operated civil penalty schemes was 484,100, an increase of only _ per cent compared with 2006/07.
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