| 9. Offending while
on Bail (Table 14) |
| 9.1 Under
the Bail etc. (Scotland) Act 1980, breaching the bail
condition that no further offences would be committed
while on bail was treated as an offence in its own right.
Revisions made by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act
1995 changed this. Breaching this bail condition ceased
to be a separate offence for those given bail after 31
March 1996. Instead the courts are able to treat the fact
that an offence had been committed while the offender was
on bail as an aggravating factor in sentencing and to
increase the severity of the sentence imposed for the
offence. The effect of this change on the court
proceedings statistics is described at Annex, note 13. |
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| 9.2 Of the
150,400 persons with a charge proved in 1997, 7,000 (5
per cent) were recorded as having a bail aggravation,
i.e. the offender was on a bail order issued after 31
March 1996 at the time the offence was committed. In half
of these cases no additional sentence was imposed for the
bail aggravation. A further 3,100 (2 per cent) persons
with a charge proved in 1997 had a charge under the Bail
(Scotland) Act 1980. Excluding "crimes against
public justice", the categories in 1997 with the
highest recorded proportions of persons with a charge
proved who had either a bail aggravation or a charge
under the 1980 Bail Act were robbery (21 per cent), theft
by opening lockfast places (20 per cent), housebreaking
(18 per cent) and theft of a motor vehicle (18 per cent). |
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| 10.
Characteristics of Individual Offenders (Table 15) |
| 10.1 The
preceding sections of the bulletin present information on
persons proceeded against in court. In those statistics,
each occasion on which a person is proceeded against is
counted once, so that one individual offender may be
counted on a number of occasions throughout the year.
This section includes information on individual offenders
who had a charge proved for any crime or for the offences
of breach of the peace or simple assault (i.e. motor
vehicle offences and most minor statutory offences are
excluded). |
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| 10.2 In
1997, there was a total of 80,300 occasions on which a
person had a charge proved for any crime, breach of the
peace or simple assault. This represented some 53,200
individual offenders who had a charge proved on at least
one occasion, 4 per cent fewer than in 1996. Over half of
the convictions were accounted for by the 26 per cent of
individuals who had a charge proved on more than one
occasion. Those aged under 21 were the most likely to
have had a charge proved on more than one occasion. For
males aged under 21, the average number of occasions on
which a charge was proved for such offences was 1.8. They
accounted for 27 per cent of all occasions when such a
charge was proved in 1997 compared with 34 per cent in
1989. This difference partly reflects the fall in number
of young people in the population over this period. |
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| 10.3 In
1997, the peak age for persons with a charge proved was
18. Ten per cent of 18 year old males in the Scottish
population had charges proved against them on at least
one occasion for a crime, breach of the peace or simple
assault. The corresponding rate for females of the same
age was very much lower - only one per cent. |
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| Chart 7:
Custodial sentences as a percentage of custody, community
service order and probation order, 1987-1997 |
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| Chart 8:
Individuals per 10,000 population with one or more
charges proved in court in 1997 for a crime, breach of
the peace or simple assault |
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| 11.
Appeals (Tables 16 to 18) |
| 11.1 All
findings of the court of first instance are subject to
appeal to the High Court, sitting as an appeal court.
Convicted offenders may appeal against their conviction;
against sentence; or against both conviction and
sentence. The right to appeal against sentence alone in
summary cases has been available since 1981, following
changes introduced by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act
1980. From late September 1995 leave to appeal must be
granted by a high court judge; refusal of leave may be
appealed to the High Court. The Lord Advocate has a right
to refer a case resulting in an acquittal to the High
Court for a decision on a point of law (though this does
not affect the acquittal), while the Crown also has a
right of appeal against sentence on grounds of undue
leniency. |
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| 11.2 A total
of 3,300 appeals were decided in 1997, equivalent to
around 2 per cent of all persons with a charge proved. Of
these appeals, 10 per cent related to conviction alone,
84 per cent to sentence alone and 6 per cent to both
conviction and sentence. A very small number of appeals
related to acquittals. Eight per cent of appeals were
from persons convicted in the High Court, 13 per cent
from those convicted in sheriff solemn courts, 69 per
cent from sheriff summary courts and 10 per cent from the
district or stipendiary magistrates courts. The majority
(70 per cent) of appeals in 1997 involved cases where a
custodial sentence had been imposed. |
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| 11.3 Of the
total of 3,300 appeals in 1997, 59 per cent were
abandoned before a decision was given, while a further 23
per cent were otherwise unsuccessful. Eighteen per cent
of appeals were successful, including the original
conviction being quashed (2 per cent) or a reduction in
the original sentence (15 per cent). In a handful of
cases the original sentence was increased. |
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| 11.4 The
introduction of a preliminary sift into the appeals
process in September 1995 resulted in a decrease in the
proportion of appeals which were dismissed with an
increase in the proportion abandoned. Nearly all (98 per
cent) of appeals in 1997 involved the sift process. In 47
per cent of these cases leave to appeal was granted with
the proportion being higher for appeals from the High
Court and sheriff solemn courts than for summary courts. |
