Costs, Sentencing Profiles and the Scottish Criminal Justice System 1997

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 Scottish 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 relies on information supplied by police forces to The Scottish Office. 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 over 150,000 court proceedings 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 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 is given for the following crime groups:

Robbery Crimes of violence (excluding robbery) Crimes of indecency Housebreaking Theft of motor vehicles Other theft Fraud Other crimes of dishonesty Vandalism, fire-raising etc Crimes against public justice Drugs offences Simple assault Other crimes and offences

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 Simple 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 Simple assault Breach of the peace.