Thematic report on Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service's response on race issues

Having been introduced in 1998, annual information with regards the Section 50 charges is available from 1999 onwards. The figures presented here (tables 1 and 2 and charts 1-9) are derived from the Scottish Executive Justice Department (SEJD) court proceedings database ¹. They relate to convictions where the main offence involved - generally categorised as such by severity of sentence recorded on that database - was a charge of racially aggravated harassment or racially aggravated conduct. The racially aggravated harassment charge, since it involves the pursuance of a course of conduct - that is, must involve conduct on at least two occasions - may be regarded as the more 'serious' of the two racial charges, for purposes of interpretation.

Information on convictions where the racial offence is 'secondary' to another offence (again, generally categorised as such by severity of sentence recorded on the SEJD court proceedings database) is available only for years 2001 and 2002, and is presented in Table 3.

Information with regards offences with a racial aggravation recorded against them (under Section 96 of the 1998 Act) is presented separately, in table 4, following the analysis of the Section 50 charges. Data on instances where non-harassment orders were obtained in relation to the Section 50 racial harassment charges is then presented.

Please note that the following analysis is based on a relatively small number of cases, and so care should be taken when interpreting the results.

In Scotland in 2002, some 512 individuals were responsible for a total of 533 convictions where the main offence involved one of the statutory racial offences. This represents a pronounced increase since 1999 when there were just 53 such convictions (Table 1, Chart 1). However, at least some of the rise is likely to be due to an increase in public confidence and reporting factors.

Table 1 - Convictions for Section 50 Racial Offences (where race offence was the main offence), 1999-2002

Chart 1

Convictions for Section 50 Racial Offences, 1999-2002

Of the total number of convictions in 2002, 502 (94 per cent) were for racially aggravated conduct and 31 (6 per cent) were for racially aggravated harassment. A similar ratio in the number of convictions for each of the two categories of offence was observed in each year since 1999. Persons convicted of these racial offences form a relatively small proportion (0.4 per cent in 2002) of all convictions in Scottish Courts. However, this proportion has increased marginally year-on-year since 1999.

An estimated 80 per cent of persons proceeded against in court in 2002 for such racial offences had at least one charge proved against them or a plea of guilty accepted (Chart 2).

Chart 2

Persons proceeded against for racial offences, by % outcome ², 2002

This compares, for example, with 85 per cent and 78 per cent in respect of breach of the peace or assault.

Gender and age profiles for those convicted of the racial offences make interesting reading. While the number of female offenders convicted of racial offences is small, females have accounted for an increasing proportion of all those convicted for these offences - 6 per cent in 1999 rising to 17 per cent in 2002. Over the same period, by comparison, the proportion of females convicted of common assault charges has increased slightly from 13 per cent in 1999, to 15 per cent in 2002. The proportion of females convicted of breach of the peace charges has only marginally increased; 11 per cent in 1999, remaining stable at 12 per cent from 2000-2002. (Chart 3)

Chart 3

Percentage female convictions, by catgeory of offence, 1999-2002

Convictions for racially aggravated harassment were exclusively male in 1999 and 2000, and were almost exclusively so in 2001 and 2002. The relatively small numbers convicted of this offence tended to be in the younger age groups - for example, 39 per cent were aged under 21 in 2002 (Table 2). However, in relation to racial convictions overall, offenders aged over 30 comprised the largest group in 2002. This was true for both males (38 per cent) and females (45 per cent) (Charts 4 and 5).

Table 2 - Convictions for Section 50 racial offences, by age and gender, 2002

There were broadly similar gender and age profiles for those convicted of racial offences in previous years though there tended to be slightly higher proportions of offenders in younger age groups, in respect of both males and females.

Interestingly, a good proportion of those convicted of racial offences have also been involved in criminal activity previously. Of the 512 individuals convicted on at least one occasion in 2002 for one of these racial offences, 71 per cent had at least one previous conviction in the period 1993-2002. 15 per cent of offenders had over 10 previous convictions (Chart 6).

Chart 6

Percentage of individuals convicted of Section 50 racial offences, with previous convictions, 2002

The vast majority (98%) of convictions were made in Sheriff Summary Courts in 2002. Nearly all of the small number of convictions which were made in a Sheriff and Jury Court over the period 1999-2002 related to racially aggravated conduct.

The 1998 Act provides for fines and maximum prison penalties for racially aggravated conduct and harassment charges of:-

- on summary conviction - six months imprisonment;

- on indictment - seven years imprisonment.

In terms of penalties actually imposed for the statutory racial offences the statistics show that over half (55 per cent) of all convictions in 2002 resulted in a fine. One fifth (20 per cent) of convictions resulted in a custodial sentence being imposed as the main penalty with another 14 per cent having a community sentence imposed. The remaining 11 per cent of convictions in 2002 were accounted for by other types of sentence, mainly admonitions (Chart 7).

Chart 7

Convictions for Section 50 racial offences by % main penalty, 2002

The percentage of convictions resulting in a custodial sentence has been increasing over the period 2000-2002 after a dip between 1999 and 2000. While around 20 per cent of convictions resulted in a custodial sentence in 2002, this proportion was 25 per cent in 1999, 13 per cent in 2000 and 17 per cent in 2001 (Chart 8).

Chart 8

Percentage of convictions for Section 50 racial offences resulting in custodial sentences, 1999-2002

Custodial sentences were more likely to be imposed in convictions for racially aggravated harassment convictions (29 per cent in 2002) than for racially aggravated conduct (19 per cent in 2002), reflecting the more serious nature of the former offence. By way of comparison, in 2002 custodial sentences were imposed in 26 per cent of convictions for all offences classified as "crimes" (generally the more serious type of offence), in 9 per cent of convictions for breach of the peace and in 13 per cent of convictions for common assault.

Nearly all persons given a custodial sentence on conviction for the racial offences were male (for example, 96 per cent in 2002).

Apart from a dip between 1999 (when the number of custodial sentences imposed was small - 13 in total) and 2000, the average length of sentence imposed for these two racial offences has generally increased over time (Chart 9). Although broadly similar, the average length of custodial sentence for convictions for racially aggravated harassment (98 days in 2002) is generally slightly less than for racially aggravated conduct (100 days in 2002).

Chart 9

Average length of custodial sentence (days) imposed for Section 50 racial offences, 1999-2002

For the purposes of comparison, the average length of custodial sentence for breach of the peace was 87 days in 2002, increasing from 76 days in 2000. Common assault custodial convictions generally attracted a slightly longer average sentence (145 days in 2002).

In addition to the preceding analysis a further 239 racial convictions were obtained where some other offence was designated as the main offence in the SEJD court proceedings database (generally because of the severity of sentence imposed on each individual offence). A summary of these "secondary" racial offences broken down by the main offence involved in the conviction, for 2001 and 2002, is given in Table 3. Figures are not available for earlier years.

Table 3 - Convictions where the race offence was 'secondary' to another main offence, 2001 and 2002

Racially Aggravated Offences

As noted in Chapter 2 of the report, the 1998 Act introduced in Section 96 a statutory racially motivated aggravation that could be added on to any offence.

Since mid-1999, information prescribed by the ISCJIS (Integration of Scottish Criminal Justice Information Systems) data standards has been recorded for an increasing proportion of convictions. This includes the recording of information on any offence aggravators such as a racial aggravation associated with an offence.

The rollout of ISCJIS is not yet complete across all courts and so the coverage of the information on offence aggravators for convictions will not yet be complete. The robustness of such data that does exist has still to be fully evaluated. These points should be taken into consideration in interpretation of the following data.

Table 4 below presents the data currently available (for 2001 and 2002).

Table 4 - Charges proved with a racial aggravation recorded against the offence (under Section 96), 2001-2002

It can be seen that racial aggravations are most frequently recorded against charges proved in respect of breach of the peace and common assault.

Although information over time is limited, age and gender profiles are broadly similar to those obtained in relation to the Section 50 racial charges. Females account for a relatively small but increasing proportion of the totals and the proportion of offenders aged over 30 is generally at least a third for both males and females. While data for 2003 is not yet publicly available, early indications reinforce the emerging trends.

Non-Harassment Orders

As also noted earlier in the chapter it may be appropriate (at Fiscal discretion) for a non-harassment order to be sought in relation to Section 50 racial harassment charges. Latest data shows that in 2002, two such non-harassment orders were obtained in relation to racial harassment charges proved (of a total of 31 racial harassment charges proved in that year).

Future statistical information in relation to racist incidents

The collection of statistics on racist incidents was formally approved by ACPOS on 19 April 2002. Following a period of time necessary to allow police forces to develop the technical infrastructure necessary to collect statistics on racist incidents in the required format and to ensure uniformity of collation and submission the collection was implemented from 1 January 2003.

The collection covers all racist incidents across Scotland using the definition supplied from the Lawrence enquiry: "That a racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person".

Importantly, the collection will gather information on, among other things, ethnicity of both victim and perpetrator. This is the first time this information has been collected. It is anticipated that results of the collection will be published by the Scottish Executive for the first time in 2005 and thereafter on an annual basis.