Religiously Aggravated Offending in Scotland 2011-12

A breakdown of religious aggravations charges (section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2010) in Scotland in 2011-12.


Footnotes

1 Note: The starting point for the analysis in this report is the 897 charges with a religious aggravation that were reported to COPFS in 2011-12. However, during the course of conducting this research some charges were identified that had been subsequently amended, or appeared to have been added erroneously. These have been omitted from the analysis. All the following analyses are therefore based on 876 charges.The COPFS report can be found at: http://www.copfs.gov.uk/Publications/2012/05/Hate-Crime-Scotland-2011-12

2 http://www.copfs.gov.uk/Publications/2012/05/Hate-Crime-Scotland-2011-12

3 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2011/12/06141134

4 http://www.copfs.gov.uk/Publications/2012/05/Hate-Crime-Scotland-2011-12

5 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/11/17154035/0

6 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/law/sectarianism-action-1/football-violence/bill

7 Section 11 of the 2012 Act includes a requirement for a review, which will involve an opportunity to consider the impact of the Act on existing legislation.

8 There were 897 charges with a religious aggravation reported to COPFS in 2011-12. However during the course of conducting the research some changes were identified that had been subsequently amended, or appear to have been added erroneously. These have been omitted from the analysis. (This also explains why our report makes reference to a 26% increase in charges with a religious aggravation between 2010-11 and 2011-12, while the COPFS report makes reference to a 29% increase.) This COPFS report can be found at: http://www.copfs.gov.uk/Publications/2012/05/Hate-Crime-Scotland-2011-12

9 Population rate based on GROS mid-year population rates 2011. Available at: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/population/estimates/mid-year/2011/tables.html

10 'Main street' refers to a public street in a town or city centre and is used in this report, and in the previous analysis, to distinguish between these areas and residential/suburban areas.

11 The 'association with football' also took into consideration language that referred to a particular football team or reference to football songs or regalia/symbols

12 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/law/sectarianism-action-1/football-violence/bill

13 The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 came into force on 1 March 2012. After March 2012, the final calendar month included in this analysis, this new legislation may have been used instead of Section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, and some of the football related statistics may be smaller than they might otherwise have been for this month.

14 'Community penalty' includes a community service order and a community payback order

15 'Other' disposals include warnings, drug treatment orders and football banning orders

Contact

Email: Ben Cavanagh

Back to top