Journey times in the Scottish Criminal Justice System: analysis of equality factors of accused disposed in court
This paper investigates how the median journey times (from offence to verdict) for accused persons prosecuted in Scottish courts vary by their sex, age, ethnicity and socio-economic status (as measured by the Social Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD))
SIMD rank is reported in three groups: the most deprived 20% SIMD areas, the least deprived 20% SIMD areas and the remaining 60% SIMD areas. Median offence to verdict times for accused with postcodes in these three groups are shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Distribution of median offence to verdict times by deprivation index.
Note: Outliers have been removed from the chart to allow a clearer view of the central tendency and spread of the data. Number of case-accused considered in each group and the corresponding percentages of the total are shown in the tables in the Annex.
Median offence to verdict time for accused living in the 20% least deprived areas (209 days) was significantly shorter than for accused living in the 20% most deprived areas (219 days) and the remaining areas (211 days) (Table 4). No significant difference was found between the median times for accused living in the most deprived areas and those living in the remaining SIMD areas (between 20% and 80%).
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