National statistics

Offending Histories - Q4 2021 (HTML)

Published 19 May 2022

Applies to England and Wales

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/first-time-entrants-fte-into-the-criminal-justice-system-and-offender-histories-year-ending-december-2021/offending-histories-q4-2021-html

1. Main Point

The proportion of adult offenders convicted for an indictable offence with long criminal careers is 33% down from 36% in 2020.

The proportion of all offenders convicted for an indictable offence with a long criminal career (more than 15 previous cautions or convictions) is down to 31%, the lowest proportion since 2011.

Figure 6: Offenders convicted for indictable offences by previous criminal history, December 2011 to December 2021 (Source: Criminal History Pivot tool 2021 Q4)

The proportion of adult offenders convicted for an indictable offence with long criminal careers is now at 33%, compared with 34% in 2011.

The number of first-time offenders[footnote 1] convicted for an indictable offence has increased to 27,000 in 2021. This is greater than the volumes seen in 2020, 2019 and 2018 but is less than any of the volumes seen between 2011 and 2017. The proportion of the offending population who are first time offenders has increased year on year since 2014. In 2021 16% of the offending population was a first-time offender, a 6-percentage point increase since 2014. The proportion of juvenile offenders convicted for an indictable offence who were first time offenders has steadily increased. 40% of juvenile offenders were first time offenders in 2021, an increase of 26 percentage points since 2011.

  1. First time offenders refers to offenders with no previous cautions or convictions. ↩

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