The number of people being convicted in courts here has increased, according to official figures released this week.
The figures are contained in Department of Justice’s Research and Statistical Bulletin 7/2013 ‘‘Northern Ireland Conviction and Sentencing Statistics 2009.”
This bulletin reports on court convictions data broken down by crime category, gender and age for the calendar year 2009.
The report is broken down by convictions in all courts, magistrates’ courts and Crown Court.
The key findings were as follows:
All courts
▪ In 2009, the number of convictions in all courts was 29,296, an increase of 1.7% (compared with 28,820 in 2008).
▪ 25,100 (or 85.7%) of people convicted in all courts were male.
▪ Just under two-thirds of all sentences in 2009 – 63% (18,441) – received a fine.
Magistrates’ courts
▪ The vast majority (95.4%) of convictions were proceeded against at magistrates’ courts with 27,961 convictions in 2009.
▪ Of the persons convicted in magistrates’ courts, 85.4% were male in 2009.
▪ In 2009, the majority of disposals in magistrates’ courts were for Motoring offences resulting in 51.0% (14,268) of convictions.
Crown Court
▪ In 2009, 4.6% of all convictions were disposed of in the Crown Court. There were 1,335 convictions at Crown Court in 2009.
▪ 91.3% (1,219) of those convicted at the Crown Court in 2009 were male.
▪ Violence against the Person offences accounted for 26.2% (350) of the convictions.
▪ A custodial sentence was the most common method of disposal at the Crown Court. In 2009, 53.3% (711) of sentences imposed had an immediate custodial element.
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