National Care Service - justice social work: overview

Background statistics on Scotland

Scotland's population as of 2019 had the following high level statistics

• On 30 June 2019, Scotland's population was estimated to be 5,463,300 with just over a quarter of people (26%) in Scotland aged 31 to 50
• Overall Scotland had a relatively even split between sexes in 2019, with 51% female and 49% male, although this varied amongst age groups
• About 5% of the adult population were minority ethnic

People going through the criminal proceedings in 2019-20 have a different profile to the general population:

• A total of 85,700 people were proceeded against in Court in 2019-20.
• There were 15 convictions per 1,000 of the people in Scotland’s population
• There were 75,200 people who were convicted, 83% were male
• About 50% of people who were convicted were aged 31 to 50 years

Statistics from justice social work tend to reflect criminal proceedings in general (there are some exceptions):

• There is a higher percentage of males than females reported
• Just over half of people receiving the main community penalty (community payback order) were aged over 30.
• Where ethnicity is known, around 4% of people define themselves as being of minority ethnicity