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9 Commentary: Characteristics of Individual Offenders (Tables 13 & 14,Chart 5 )
9.1 The preceding sections of the bulletin generally present information in terms of persons convicted in court for all crimes and offences. In those statistics, each occasion on which a person is convicted is counted once, so that one individual offender may be counted on a number of occasions throughout the year. It is possible to analyse convictions for crimes and certain offences (common assault, breach of the peace, racially aggravated conduct and harassment, firearms offences and social security offences) by individual offender. This section presents information on the 53,300 individual offenders who were convicted for these crimes and offences on at least one occasion in 2007/08.
9.2 About a quarter of the 53,300 individual offenders in 2007/08 accounted for half of the 80,900 convictions.
9.3 In 2007/08, the peak ages for convictions were 18 for males and 19 for females. The proportion of 18 year old males in the Scottish population who were convicted on at least one occasion for a crime or relevant offence was 7 per cent. The percentage of females aged 19 who were convicted was much lower, at just 1 per cent of the overall female population of that age.
9.4 Of the 53,300 individuals convicted at least once in 2007/08 for a crime or relevant offence, 65 per cent had accumulated at least one previous conviction for these crimes and offences in the period 1998/99 to 2007/08, including 12 per cent with over 10 such previous convictions. This latter proportion was higher for males (12 per cent) than for females (8 per cent), and was highest for the 21-30 year old age group (18 per cent).
9.5 Sixty-six per cent of the 7,200 individuals sentenced to custody (for their most recent conviction) in 2007/08 for a crime or relevant offence had at least one previous custodial conviction for these crimes and offences in 1998/99 to 2007/08. Sixty-one per cent of this group of offenders had previously received a community sentence; and 39 per cent had previously been convicted before the High Court or a Sheriff and Jury Court.
Chart 5: Individual offenders per 10,000 population 1 with one or more charges proved in court in 2007/08 for a crime or relevant offence 2
1. Mid-2007 population estimates for Scotland.
2. Common assault, breach of the peace, racially aggravated conduct or harassment, firearms offences and social security offences.
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