Reconviction Rates in Scotland: 2021-22 Offender Cohort
Statistics on reconvictions in Scotland are presented up to the latest cohort of 2021-22. The latest year’s data is impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and caution should be used when interpreting trends.
Part of
Useful definitions
Cohort of offenders: Everyone who has been released from a custodial sentence or given a non-custodial sentence, in a specified financial year. For example, the 2021-22 cohort is people who were released from custody or given a non-custodial sentence between the 1st April 2021 and the 31st March 2022.
Reconviction rate: The percentage of offenders in the cohort who were reconvicted one or more times by a court within a specified follow up period from the date of the index conviction. For most reconviction analyses in this bulletin, the follow-up period is one year, except for Table 14 where a two year follow up period is presented
Average number of reconvictions per offender: The total number of reconvictions in the follow-up period divided by the total number of offenders in the cohort.
Index conviction: The initial conviction which resulted in someone becoming part of the cohort of offenders. The ‘index crime’ is the crime that lead to the index conviction
Non-court disposals: Penalties that can be issued outside of court by police officers or by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). These direct measure options are the result of the Criminal Proceedings Act 2007 and were designed to take less serious cases out of the justice system at an earlier stage.
The definitions in Annex Table A1 provide more details about the terminology used in this publication.