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

8. Focus on Housebreaking

8.1 Persons convicted of housebreaking are of interest in studying reconvictions because they are thought to offend at a high rate. A total of 2,390 (4 per cent) of the 54,712 offenders with an index conviction in 1995 had housebreaking as their index crime. Some characteristics of this group of offenders are given in the box below.

8.2 It is clear that housebreakers also had involvement in other types of crime. While 29 per cent of this group were reconvicted for housebreaking within two years of their index conviction in 1995 (for an average f 3.6 housebreaking offences in total), 45 per cent were reconvicted for other crimes of dishonesty and 12 per cent for drug offences. Individual offenders may of course be reconvicted for several types of offence.

8.3 The overall rate of reconviction for housebreakers was higher than average: 68 per cent were reconvicted at least once (for any type of offence) within two years of their index conviction in 1995 compared with 45 per cent of all offenders. Housebreakers also had a much higher rate of reconviction resulting in a custodial sentence: 39 per cent compared with 14 per cent for all offenders. These offenders also tended to be younger than average: 41 per cent were aged under 21 compared with 25 per cent of all offenders. While over half (55 per cent) of those offenders with an index conviction for housebreaking in 1995 had no previous convictions for housebreaking, only 24 per cent had no previous conviction of any sort compared with 40 per cent of all offenders.

(1) Average for offenders who had at least one reconviction within two years for housebreaking.

8.4 The general relationship between numbers of previous convictions and reconviction rates is again evident in the case of housebreakers. Eighteen per cent of those with no previous convictions for housebreaking (though some will have previous convictions for other offences) were reconvicted for housebreaking within two years of their index conviction in 1995 compared with 69 per cent of those with over 10 previous convictions for housebreaking.

8.5 The index conviction for most (84 per cent) of the 147 offenders with over 10 previous convictions for housebreaking involved the offender in a custodial sentence. Seventy-one per cent of these offenders were reconvicted for housebreaking within two years of their release from custody, for an average of just under 5 housebreaking offences, with 83 per cent of them being reincarcerated within two years (though not necessarily for housebreaking offences).

(1) Average for offenders who had at least one reconviction within two years for housebreaking.

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