Proven re-offending quarterly - January to December 2011
This report provides key statistics on proven re-offending in England and Wales.
Documents
Details
It gives proven re-offending figures for adult and juvenile offenders who were released from custody, received a non-custodial conviction at court, received a caution, reprimand or warning, or tested positive for opiates or cocaine between January and December 2011. A proven re-offence is defined as any offence committed in a one year follow-up period that leads to a court conviction, caution, reprimand or warning in the one year follow-up. Following this one year follow-up, a further six month waiting period is allowed for the offence to be proven in court.
Overall - adult and juvenile offenders
In 2011, around 610,000 adult and juvenile offenders were cautioned, convicted (excluding immediate custodial sentences) or released from custody. Around 160,000 of these offenders committed a proven re-offence within a year. This gives an overall proven re-offending rate of 26.8%, representing a very small rise of 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous 12 months and a slight fall of 1.1 percentage points since 2000. Since 2000, the overall proven re-offending rate for adult and juvenile offenders has remained fairly stable, fluctuating between around 26% and 28%.
In total, around 480,000 proven re-offences were committed over the one year follow-up period, with those that re-offended committing, on average, 2.9 re-offences each (both adults and juveniles).
Unsurprisingly, offenders with 11 or more previous offences have a higher re-offending rate than those with no previous offences – 48% compared to 11% in the most recent figures and the same pattern can be seen for previous years.
Serious re-offences: less than 1% of all proven re-offences committed over the one year follow-up period were serious violent or sexual offences with very little change since 2000.
Adult offenders
Around 540,000 adult offenders were cautioned, convicted or released from custody in 2011 and around 140,000 of them committed a re-offence. This gives a proven re-offending rate of 25.5%. This represents a small increase of 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous 12 months and a slight fall of 0.7 percentage points since 2000. Proven re-offending rates for adult offenders have remained fairly flat since 2000 and this is consistent with the overall trend shown for all offenders.
Adult offenders released from custody
The proven re-offending rate for adult offenders released from custody in 2011 was 46.4%, a fall of 1.1 percentage points compared to the previous 12 months and a fall of 3.0 percentage points since 2000. Adults who served sentences of less than 12 months, re-offended at a rate of 58.1% compared to 35.1% for those who served sentences of 12 months or more. Since 2005, the overall rate for those released from custody has remained relatively stable. The trends for those released from short and long sentences have both also remained broadly flat since 2005 and are consistent with the overall trend. Furthermore, the rate for those released from short sentences has been consistently higher compared to those released from long sentences.
Adult offenders starting a court order
The proven re-offending rate for adult offenders starting a court order (Community Order or Suspended Sentence Order) was 34.4%, a small rise of 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous 12 months and down 3.5 percentage points since 2000. The proven re-offending rate for adult offenders starting a Community Order was 36.0% while, for a Suspended Sentence Order, the re-offending rate was 30.2%.
Juvenile offenders
Around 75,000 juvenile offenders were cautioned, convicted or released from custody in 2011 and around 27,000 of them committed a re-offence. This gives a proven re-offending rate of 35.9% and, with a slight increase of 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous 12 months and an increase of 2.2 percentage points since 2000, it is now higher than at any other time over the last 11 years. However, the cohort has changed considerably over the period since 2000; it has almost halved in size due to a substantial decrease in the number of first time entrants to the criminal justice system (a first time entrant is an offender who has received their first reprimand, warning, caution or conviction for an offence) and, as such, is comprised of offenders whose characteristics mean that they are more likely to re-offend than those in the 2000 cohort.
Juvenile offenders released from custody
The proven re-offending rate for juvenile offenders released from custody in 2011 was 70.7%. This represents a fall of 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous 12 months and fall of 6.1 percentage points since 2000.
This quarterly bulletin presents the proportion of offenders who re-offend (proven re-offending rate) and the number of proven re-offences those offenders commit by age group, gender, ethnicity, criminal history and offence type. Also included are proven re-offending rates for serious proven re-offending, different types of offenders (e.g. adult, juvenile, drug-misusing and prolific and other priority offenders); different types of sentence; and for individual prisons, probation trusts and youth offending teams.
Latest figures are provided with comparisons to January to December 2010 and the year 2000 in order to highlight long-term trends; 2000 is the earliest year for which proven re-offending data exist on a comparable basis.
The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff.
Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:
Proven Re-offending Statistics Quarterly Bulletin
Ministry of Justice:
Secretary of State, Ministers of State, Permanent Secretary, Director General of Justice Policy Group, Deputy Director of Youth Justice Policy, Director of Sentencing and Rehabilitation, Director General of Corporate Performance Group, Director of Analytical Services, Director General of Transforming Justice, Head of National Operations Group, Head of Justice Statistics Analytical Services, Head of Sentencing Policy and Penalties Unit, Deputy Director for Offender Management Reform, Deputy Director of Reducing Reoffending Portfolio, Deputy Director for Reducing Reoffending, Head of National Operations Group (NOMS), Director General of National Offender Management Service (NOMS), Head of Public Protection Casework Section (NOMS), Head of Offender Management and Public Protection Unit (NOMS), Head of Performance, Information and Analysis Group (NOMS), Head of Research (YJB), and the relevant special advisers, analysts, policy officers and press officers.
Home Office:
Secretary of State, Ministers of State, Permanent Secretary, Programme Director of Crime and Policing Analysis Unit, Head of Reducing Reoffending Unit, and relevant special advisers, analysts, policy officers and press officers.
No 10: Special adviser to the Prime Minister
Treasury: Ministry of Justice Finances and Strategy, Public Services Group
Annex A - Interim re-conviction figures for Peterborough and Doncaster Payment by Results pilots
One official from each of SERCO and Social Finance.