Reconviction rates in Scotland, 2022-2023 cohort

The latest reconviction statistics for the 2022-2023 cohort have been published today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician. There was a small reduction in the proportion of people reconvicted within 12 months compared with the 2021-2022 cohort. As the data continues to be affected by the pandemic and the justice system’s recovery, figures from 2020-2021 onwards should not be considered indicative of longer-term trends.

Of all the offenders released from custody or given a non-custodial sentence in 2022-2023, 26.1% were reconvicted within 12 months. This is a small decrease from 27.3% in the 2021-2022 cohort. Offenders in the 2022-2023 cohort were reconvicted on average 0.44 times per offender, down from 0.46 time for the 2021-2022 cohort.

Males in the 2022-2023 cohort had a reconviction rate of 26.6% compared with 23.7% for females. Younger age groups had higher reconviction rates than older groups, 31.9% of those under 21 were reconvicted compared with 20.2% of those over 40. The gap between the oldest and youngest groups has fallen over the last few decades, largely due to decreases in the reconviction rate of the youngest age groups.

Offenders convicted of a crime of dishonesty had a reconviction rate of 42.8%, higher than any other crime group. Offenders convicted of sexual crimes had the lowest reconviction rate at 13.3%

Offenders released from custody had higher rates of reconviction than those with non custodial sentences. Of the 2022-2023 cohort, 42.5% of those released from custody were reconvicted within a year compared with 28.6% of those given a Community Payback Order (CPO).

Reconviction rates also varied strongly with the length of sentence given. Offenders released from a short sentence of three months or fewer had a reconviction rate of 60.3% compared with 10.0% for those with a sentence over four years.

There are a number of measures available to the police and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) for dealing with minor offences directly. Statistics are provided on repeat non-court disposals (where someone is given a non-court disposal within 12 months of a previous non-court disposal.)

Of all of the offenders given a Police disposal with 2022-2023, 17.3% were given a repeat non-court disposal within 12 months. Of those given a COPFS disposal, 11.9% were given a repeat non-court disposal within 12 months.

Background

The full statistical publication is available at Reconviction Rates in Scotland: 2022 to 2023 offender cohort.

This publication presents statistics on reconviction rates and average number of reconviction rates per offender. It provides break downs by sex, age, index conviction, sentence length and previous conviction. Also provided are rates of repeat non-court disposals issued by Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland can be accessed at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/about-our-statistics/.