Reconviction rates in Scotland: 2013-2014 offender cohort

Introduction

The statistics presented in this bulletin are derived from the data used in the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin. The Criminal Proceedings data is in turn derived from information held on the Criminal History System ( CHS) maintained by Police Scotland, who are also responsible for managing its operation.

Changes made to this year's report

The changes made to this year's report are as follows:

• The rankings of the severity of disposals have been changed from that used in previous publications so as to be in line with the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin. The implication of this change is discussed in Section 1.4.
• A methodological change was implemented for this year's publication to estimate of those given Early and Effective Interventions ( EEIs) the percentage of individuals who received another non-court disposal within one year as well as the average number of non-court disposals per individual within a year. EEIs are measures used by the police to redirect juveniles away from the adult courts and the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration ( SCRA). This is the first time these statistics have been published and they are described in Section 2.
• For comparison the overall average number of reconvictions per offender has been added to the breakdowns shown by individual variables in Charts 3, 4, 5 and 6.
• Two new charts have been included for the first time in this bulletin:
  • Chart 7 compares the reconviction rates of index disposals and lengths of custodial sentences for the 2013-14 cohort.
  • Chart 10 shows the number of individual convicted in 2014-15 by last sentence and number of previous convictions over the last ten years.