Hearings in Scottish courts - ethnicity of individuals: analysis

2 Recorded crime and convictions

2.1 Demographics of convictions in Scotland

Official statistics on criminal proceedings in Scotland [3] from the year 2020-21 gives analysis of characteristics of individuals from criminal proceedings concluded in Scottish courts, including age and gender. The ethnicity of individuals is not included.

In 2020-21, there was reduced court activity due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 46,497 people were proceeded against in court, which was 46% less than in 2019-20, as shown in Figure 2. During the same period, the total number of convictions was 42,532 (44% less than 2019-20).

2.2 Categorisation of crime types

The Scottish Government has published an update on recorded crime in Scotland for 2021-22 [3]. There are a total of over 500 types of crimes and offences ("crime" is used for more serious criminal acts whereas "offence" is used for those which are less serious). There are a total of six crime groups and three offence groups, as shown in Table 1, covering 50 categories (listed in Appendix A).

The number of crimes recorded by Police Scotland in 2021-22 was 286,464, a decrease of 4% compared to 2020-21. This is the lowest level since 1974. Table 2shows the breakdown of crimes by crime group.

The overall number of offences recorded by Police Scotland in 2021-22 decreased compared to 2020-21 by 3%, to 180,913. The breakdown by offence group is shown in Table 3.