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This chapter describes the characteristics of persons who received a fine sentence sanction from a court for their offence during the reference year. Fine sentences are court decisions that order persons to pay a fine or alternatively face a period in custody. As the majority of fine sentences are resolved without a custodial sentence (96% in 2017), and do not involve a period of detention in prison, the time period to a re-offence is calculated from the court outcome date. Further detail is available in the Background Notes.
A higher proportion of younger people are linked to re-offending one year after receiving fine sentences from the courts. In 2017 persons aged under 21 were most likely to re-offend (44%) after receiving a fine sentence. In contrast, just 21.8% of persons aged 50 and over re-offended. At an overall level, 33% of individuals that received a fine sentence reoffended in 2017. See Table 5.1 and Figure 5.1.
| Re-offended within 1 year | Did not re-offend within 1 year | |
| < 21 years | 44 | 56 |
| 21 - 25 years | 37.5 | 62.5 |
| 26 - 30 years | 32.7 | 67.3 |
| 31 - 35 years | 32.6 | 67.4 |
| 36 - 40 years | 38.2 | 61.8 |
| 41 - 50 years | 26.4 | 73.6 |
| Aged 50 and over | 21.8 | 78.2 |
The majority of offenders that received a fine sentence in 2017 were males (1,598). Of the 508 females who received fine sentences in 2017, 29.5% were linked to a re-offending indicator while over a third (34.2%) of males were linked to a re-offence. See Table 5.2 and Figure 5.2.
| Fine sentence sanctions | |
| Male | 1598 |
| Female | 508 |
The number of fine sentence sanctions issued by courts in 2017 mostly occurred in relation to the offence category “Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime” (1,144). The highest proportion of re-offending (47.4%) also took place in relation to that offence group. See Table 5.3 and Figure 5.3.
| Re-offended within 1 year | |
| 15 Offences against Government, justice procedures and organisation of crime | 47.4 |
| 08 Theft and Related Offences | 34.5 |
| 10 Controlled Drug Offences | 30.8 |
| 03 Attempts/Threats to Murder, assaults, harassments and related offences | 28.6 |
| 12 Damage to Property and the Environment | 27.3 |
| 13 Public Order and Social Code Offences | 26 |
| 16 Offences not elswhere classified | 12.9 |
| 14 Road and Traffic Offences | 12.3 |
| 09 Fraud, Deception and Related Offences | 5.7 |
| 04 Dangerous or Negligent Acts | 2.6 |
Individuals who re-offend having received a fine sentence relating to “Offences against government, justice procedures” mostly re-offend in the same incident category. In 2017, of the total 542 re-offenders in this category almost half (268) re-offended in the same incident type. See Table 5.4.
Go to next chapter: Historical Re-offending Indicators
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