Update
Yesterday (16 February 2023), the Ministry of Justice published an update on the characteristics of prolific offenders, based on data for the year 2020/21. The definitions of prolific offenders are somewhat complex:
Juvenile prolific – an offender is defined as a juvenile prolific if on their last appearance in the criminal justice system:
a. they were aged 10-17 and had 4 or more previous convictions or cautions.
b. they were aged 18-20, had a total of 8 or more previous convictions or cautions, and
had less than 4 previous convictions or cautions when aged 18-20: and
c. they were aged 21 or older, had less than 16 previous convictions or cautions, had less than 4 previous convictions or cautions when aged 18-20 and had 4 or more previous convictions or cautions when aged 10-17.
Young adult prolific – an offender is defined as a young adult prolific if on their last appearance in the criminal justice system:
a. they were aged 18-20, had a total of 8 or more previous convictions or cautions, and had at least 4 previous convictions or cautions when aged 18-20: and
b. they were aged 21 or older, had a total of 16 or more previous convictions or cautions, had less than 8 previous convictions or cautions when aged 21 or older, and had 4 or more previous convictions or cautions when aged between 18 and 20.
Adult prolific – an offender is defined as an adult prolific if on the last appearance in the
criminal justice system:
a. they were aged 21 or older, had a total of 16 or more previous convictions or cautions, and had 8 or more previous convictions or cautions when aged 21 or older.
Key points
The headline points about prolific offenders are:
- Prolific offenders make up roughly one tenth (0.5 million) of the overall offender cohort (5.89 million), the same as the period up to 2016.
- Despite making up a minority of all offenders, prolific offenders are responsible for nearly half of all sentencing occasions (10.5 million). This remains unchanged since the previous report.
- Prolific offenders received twice as many custodial sentences (2.59 million) than the remaining offending population (1.10 million), between 2000 and 2021. This proportion remains unchanged since 2016.
- In 2016 prolific offenders were receiving around 4.6 custodial sentences per offender. This has increased to 4.9 up to the year ending 2021.
- Theft offences are the most common types of offences in the criminal careers of prolific offenders.
- For similar offences, such as shoplifting, prolific offenders are more likely to receive a custodial sentence than their non-prolific counterparts.
Demographics
Of all prolific offenders, 15,607 (3%) were aged 10 – 17, 31,973 (6%) were aged 18-20 and 478,330 (91%) were 21 or older at the time of their last appearance in the criminal justice system. The age profile of the prolific cohort has increased, and there have been fewer juvenile prolific offenders entering. In 2016, there were around 21,000 prolific offenders aged 10-17 at their most recent sanction, reduced to 16,000 in the 2021 cohort.
You can get a more detailed look at the demographic make-up of the prolific offender cohort from the data table reproduced below.
Offending
Prolific offenders continue to commit, overall, 8 times as many offences per offender compared to non-prolific offenders (20.14 offences per offender compared with 2.49). Prolific offenders commit a higher proportion of theft offences, robberies, criminal damage offences and breach offences throughout their entire criminal career, than non-prolific offenders. Thirty-three per cent of all offences committed by prolific offenders were theft offences, compared to 18% for non-prolific offenders. Shoplifting offences alone made up 14% of all sentencing occasions for prolific offenders. My assumption is that this sub-cohort consists primarily of drug dependent offenders who need to steal on a daily basis to secure funds to buy drugs.
Comparing the disposals received for shoplifting offences, prolific offenders are more likely to receive an immediate custodial sentence or community penalty compared to non-prolific offenders. Whereas non-prolific offenders are more likely to receive a caution for such an offence.
The full offence profile for prolific offenders (again, reproduced below) makes for particularly interesting reading.
