Statistical Bulletin Crime and Justice Series: Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2006/07

8 Commentary: Characteristics of Individual Offenders (Tables 13, 14, Chart 5)

8.1 The preceding sections of the bulletin generally present information in terms of persons convicted in court for all crimes and offences. In those statistics, each occasion on which a person is convicted is counted once, so that one individual offender may be counted on a number of occasions throughout the year. It is possible to analyse convictions for crimes and certain offences (common assault, breach of the peace, racially aggravated conduct and harassment, firearms offences and social security offences) by individual offender. This section presents information on the 53,550 individual offenders who were convicted for these crimes and offences on at least one occasion in 2006/07.

8.2 About a quarter of the 53,550 individual offenders in 2006/07 accounted for half of the 81,300 convictions in 2006/07.

8.3 In 2006/07, the peak age for convictions was 18. The proportion of 18 year olds in the Scottish population who were convicted on at least one occasion for a crime or relevant offence was much higher for males (7 per cent) than females (1 per cent).

8.4 Of the 53,550 individuals convicted at least once in 2006/07 for a crime or relevant offence, 65 per cent had accumulated at least one previous conviction for these crimes and offences in the period 1997/98 to 2006/07, including 12 per cent with over 10 such previous convictions. This latter proportion was higher for males (12 per cent) than for females (8 per cent), and was highest for the 21-30 year old age group (19 per cent).

8.5 Sixty-eight per cent of the 6,900 individuals sentenced to custody (for their most recent conviction) in 2006/07 for a crime or relevant offence had at least one previous custodial conviction for these crimes and offences in 1997/98 to 2006/07. Sixty-two per cent of this group of offenders had previously received a community sentence; and 40 per cent had previously been convicted before the High Court or a Sheriff and Jury Court.

Chart 5: Individual offenders per 10,000 population with one or more charges proved in court in 2006/07 for a crime or relevant offences