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One in 10 inmates is sex offender (Scotland)

by generaldecay | October 26, 2009 at 10:41 am

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About one in ten of all Scottish prisoners is a registered sex offender, according to figures released by the Scottish government. Nearly 800 sex offenders were in jail at the end of March, out of a total prison population of about 8,000.

As is always the case with official crime statistics, I advise many notes of caution. Nonetheless, these are worrying figures from the Scottish government today. Not only do these figures indicate that there are high numbers of sex offenders incarcerated in Scottish prisons, but there are also a fair few out in the community continuing to offend.

The data also showed a five-fold increase in the number of sex offenders in the community who have struck again.

Sex offenders are notoriously difficult to manage in the community because they, not least, need such specialist attention from the Probation Service.

And I'm not sure at all where Secretary MacAskill gets the following idea. It's certainly news to me.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said Scotland was leading the world in its approach to managing sex offenders.

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Sputnic

at 11:34 on October 26th, 2009

Build more prisons in Scotland and the percentage will go down ! Build drug treatment centres first though.

mudricky

at 13:10 on October 26th, 2009

There isn't all that many people in Scotland compared to other countries (5m last count 2001, 5.1m estimate last year) and to release those figures makes you think - it's is very shocking and worrying.