Home | Press | Publications | What We Do | Who We Are | Search | Site Map | Contacts | Links
Publications
Publications > Crime, Law, Justice & Rights

< Previous | Contents | Next >

Statistical Bulletin CrJ/2001/1
Reconvictions of Offenders discharged from Custody
or given Non-Custodial Sentences in 1995, Scotland

2. Key Points

• The reconvictions of a total of 54,712 offenders were analysed, comprising 6,394 who were discharged from a custodial sentence in 1995 and 48,318 who were given a non-custodial sentence in 1995. Of these offenders:
• Eighty-six per cent were male, 25 per cent were aged under 21, 40 per cent had no previous convictions and 8 per cent had over 10 previous convictions.
• Thirty-three per cent were reconvicted within one year, 45 per cent within two years, 51 per cent within three years and 54 per cent within four years.
• Males were more likely to be reconvicted than females for all age groups: 47 per cent of males and 34 per cent of females were reconvicted within two years. Males (16 per cent) were over three times as likely as females (5 per cent) to receive a custodial sentence for a reconviction within two years.
• Reconviction rates for males decreased by age: 60 per cent of male offenders aged under 21 were reconvicted within two years compared with 35 per cent of those aged over 30. Reconviction rates for females varied less by age, though those aged over 30 were slightly less likely to be reconvicted than younger females.
• The likelihood of reconviction increased markedly with the number of previous convictions: 25 per cent of offenders with no previous convictions were reconvicted within two years compared with 85 per cent of offenders with over 10 previous convictions.
• Those discharged from a custodial sentence (67 per cent) or given probation (63 per cent) were on average more likely to be reconvicted within two years than those given community service (50 per cent) or a monetary penalty (42 per cent). However, these differences are not pronounced once the age, sex and number of previous convictions of offenders are taken into account.
• Reconviction rates were highest for those convicted for a crime of dishonesty and lowest for those convicted for sexual crime.
• Twenty per cent of those convicted for violence were reconvicted for a violent crime within two years.
• Twenty-nine per cent of those convicted of housebreaking were reconvicted for housebreaking within two years, for an average of 3.6 housebreaking offences.
• Excluding pseudo reconvictions reduces the two-year reconviction rate by an estimated 10 percentage points for offenders discharged from custody and by 12 to 13 percentage points for those given community service or probation.
• While comparisons of reconviction rates in Scotland with those in England & Wales and Northern Ireland need to be heavily qualified because of differences in legal systems, procedures and crime classifications applying in the different countries, the Scottish rates appear broadly similar to those elsewhere in the UK.

3. Sources of Information

3.1 The information presented in this bulletin is based on data held in the Scottish Offenders Index (SOI). This is a database covering convictions in Scottish courts for all crimes within Groups 1-5 of the Scottish Executive Justice Department’s classification of crimes and offences and convictions for the common law offences of simple assault and breach of the peace. (See Annex note 12 for crimes and offences included.) The SOI currently covers all convictions which resulted in a sentence being imposed in the period 1989 to 1999.

3.2 Each record on the SOI database includes information on the sex and age of the offender, the dates of conviction and sentence, the main offence involved and details of the sentence imposed. Information is also available on any offences which were additional to the main offence involved. Each offender has a unique reference number, which allows individual convictions for that offender to be linked together. (It should be noted that the SOI is a purely statistical database; names and other personal information of offenders are not held.)

3.3 While virtually all convictions between 1989 and 1999 for the more serious crimes and offences are covered by the Scottish Offenders Index, other types of conviction are not. These latter include:

• convictions for motor vehicle and most minor statutory and common law offences
• convictions in courts outwith Scotland
• convictions prior to 1989.

The SOI also does not hold information on offenders’ juvenile offending. (In Scotland, all but the most serious crimes and offences alleged to have been committed by children under the age of 16 are generally dealt with by the children’s hearings system.)

3.4 The Scottish Offenders Index currently contains data on just under 307,000 offenders and a total of 903,000 convictions between 1989 and 1999. Of these offenders, 83 per cent were male and 17 per cent female. Half of the convictions recorded on the Scottish Offenders Index were accounted for by the 12 per cent of offenders who each had 6 or more convictions.

3.5 Only 15 per cent of male offenders and 5 per cent of female offenders present on the Scottish Offenders Index had received one or more custodial convictions between 1989 and 1999, whereas 81 per cent of males and 67 per cent of females had received more than one fine or other monetary penalty. The majority of offenders were dealt with by sheriff summary courts or by the district courts; only 10 per cent of offenders had been convicted in the High Court or in a sheriff solemn court. More information on the profile of offenders covered by the Scottish Offenders Index is given in Tables A1 and A2 in the Annex.

4. Definitions and Methodology

4.1 The statistics presented in this bulletin are based on an analysis of a subset of offenders on the Scottish Offenders Index. This comprised all offenders who either were discharged from a custodial sentence or had a non-custodial sentence imposed on them by a court in 1995. This year was chosen to provide a history of past convictions from 1989 as well as a follow-up period of up to four years of subsequent convictions. The general profile and overall reconviction rates for offenders in this cohort were found to be very similar to those for the corresponding offender cohorts in 1989 to 1994, so it provides a representative group for analysis purposes.

4.2 For each offender in the 1995 cohort, the conviction involved - either the one which resulted in a non-custodial sentence being imposed or the one which had originally led to a custodial sentence being served - is defined to be their index conviction. The relevant date of the index conviction is defined to be the sentence date for non-custodial sentences or the estimated date of discharge from custody for custodial convictions. The type of sentence imposed in the index conviction is defined to be the index disposal, and the main offence for which the offender was convicted is defined to be the index crime. All convictions preceding the date of the index conviction are defined to be previous convictions, while any subsequent convictions are defined to be reconvictions. Rates of reconviction are calculated as the percentage of offenders with index convictions in 1995 who were reconvicted one or more times within a specified follow up period, for example two years, from the relevant date of the index conviction.

4.3 One particular group of reconvictions included in the general analysis presented in this bulletin are pseudo reconvictions. These are convictions which take place after the relevant date of the index conviction but which are for offences committed prior to that date. So while they represent actual reconvictions as defined in section 4.1 above, they are "pseudo" reconvictions in the sense that the offending behaviour involved could not be said to have been influenced by the sentence imposed for the index conviction. As the data held on the Scottish Offenders Index does not contain actual offence dates it is not generally possible to separately identify "pseudo" from "real" reconvictions. However, the effect of pseudo reconvictions on overall reconviction rates can be estimated for a subset of offenders, and this is described further in section 9.

4.4 It is important to note that information on convictions and reconvictions is not the same thing as information on offending and reoffending, or recidivism. Not all offences which are committed are reported to the police, while some of those that are reported and recorded do not result in an offender being identified, charged and a report being sent to the Procurator Fiscal. For cases which are reported to the Procurator Fiscal, it may be decided to take no proceedings or to employ some alternative to prosecution such as a warning letter or a fiscal fine. Where persons are prosecuted, the proceedings may end up being dropped, eg where witnesses fail to turn up, or the accused may be acquitted. Convictions and reconvictions can therefore only ever be a subset of actual offending and reoffending, and reconviction rates only a proxy measure of reoffending rates.

4.5 Further background details of the coverage, definitions and limitations of the Scottish Offenders Index and methodology used in the analysis presented in this bulletin are given in the Annex.

< Previous | Contents | Next >

The information contained on this WWW site is Crown Copyright but may be reproduced without formal permission or charge for personal or in-house use. Privacy and Content Disclaimer.

For general enquiries about this web site email ceu@scotland.gov.uk or fill out our online questionnaire.