Sentences and custody

Published 10 October 2018

Last updated 8 August 2023 - see all updates

Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• from 2009 to 2017, the percentage of offenders given an immediate custodial sentence in court increased for offenders from White, Black, Asian and Mixed ethnicities
• from 2009 to 2017, a lower percentage of offenders with Mixed ethnicity were given an immediate custodial sentence than Asian offenders
• among juveniles sentenced in 2017, the Black ethnic group had the highest percentage of offenders sent to a young offenders institution
• out of all female offenders sentenced in 2017, those from the Other (including Chinese) ethnic group had the highest percentage given an immediate custodial sentence

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data measures the percentage of offenders who were sentenced to immediate custody in court, out of all offenders sentenced. We refer to this in places as the ‘custody rate’.

The data includes:

• ‘indictable-only’ offences, such as murder or rape, which can only be heard in a Crown Court
• ‘triable either way’ offences, such as burglary or drugs offences, which can be heard in magistrates’ court or Crown Courts

Percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place.

You can read more about criminal courts.

Not included in the data

The data does not include ‘summary’ offences, such as motoring offences and minor criminal damage.

The ethnic groups used in the data

The conviction ratio is shown for 5 ethnic groups based on the 2001 Census categories:

• Asian
• Black
• Mixed
• White
• Other

The ethnicity was not known for about 1 in 5 offenders. Those offenders are not included in this data.

Methodology

Read the detailed methodology document (PDF opens in a new window or tab) for the data.

If someone was sentenced for more than one offence, the data includes the offence with the heaviest statutory maximum penalty.

Some figures are based on small numbers of offenders, particularly for the Other ethnic group. Find out more about how group size affects the reliability of data.

3. By ethnicity of offender (all sentences)

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Number and percentage of offenders sentenced for indictable offences by ethnicity

Ethnicity	% sentenced	Number sentenced
Asian	6.0	10,513
Black	10.4	18,142
Mixed	3.0	5,270
White	79.3	138,834
Other including Chinese	1.3	2,220

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Sentences and custody By ethnicity of offender (all sentences) Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2017, 79.3% of all offenders sentenced for indictable offences were White, not including offenders for whom ethnicity was not known
• Black offenders accounted for 10.4% of all offenders sentenced for indictable offences, Asian offenders 6.0%, offenders with Mixed ethnicity 3.0%, and Other (including Chinese) offenders 1.3%

4. By ethnicity over time (custody only)

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2009 to 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Custody rate by ethnicity over time

	Asian			Black			Mixed			White			Other including Chinese
Year	Asian Custody Rate	Asian Number sentenced to custody	Asian All sentenced	Black Custody Rate	Black Number sentenced to custody	Black All sentenced	Mixed Custody Rate	Mixed Number sentenced to custody	Mixed All sentenced	White Custody Rate	White Number sentenced to custody	White All sentenced	Other inc Chinese Custody Rate	Other inc Chinese Number sentenced to custody	Other inc Chinese All sentenced
2009	29.0	3,946	13,615	29.1	6,800	23,362	23.2	1,869	8,055	22.2	50,933	229,047	40.0	1,506	3,769
2010	29.4	4,609	15,658	28.4	7,436	26,224	23.0	2,191	9,516	22.9	58,836	256,731	39.0	1,671	4,290
2011	31.1	4,892	15,713	30.4	8,034	26,466	26.6	2,563	9,649	24.9	63,032	252,664	38.3	1,518	3,968
2012	32.1	4,438	13,846	31.3	7,184	22,986	27.6	2,321	8,416	25.6	57,254	223,867	39.7	1,388	3,496
2013	31.0	4,066	13,118	29.4	6,383	21,698	27.9	2,198	7,869	26.3	55,470	210,712	37.6	1,291	3,429
2014	31.9	3,945	12,368	29.8	6,146	20,618	27.8	2,006	7,205	27.1	54,246	199,898	36.0	1,042	2,891
2015	33.5	3,982	11,875	30.7	6,027	19,662	28.4	1,990	7,012	28.5	51,738	181,268	35.3	1,017	2,883
2016	34.6	4,038	11,682	31.3	6,223	19,858	31.6	1,917	6,074	31.0	48,897	157,550	33.4	827	2,479
2017	35.7	3,758	10,513	33.1	6,001	18,142	32.3	1,704	5,270	32.8	45,505	138,834	35.0	776	2,220

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Sentences and custody By ethnicity over time (custody only) Summary

The ‘custody rate’ is the percentage of offenders given an immediate custodial sentence, out of all offenders being sentenced in court for indictable offences.

This data shows that:

• from 2009 to 2017, the custody rate steadily increased across all ethnic groups except for the Other (including Chinese) group
• in the same period, the overall custody rate for indictable offences went up from 23% to 33%
• in the same period, the custody rate for indictable offences went up for White offenders (by 10.6 percentage points), Black offenders (by 4 percentage points), Asian offenders (by 6.7 percentage points) and offenders of Mixed ethnicity (by 9.1 percentage points), while it went down by 5 percentage points for offenders from the Other (including Chinese) group
• Asian offenders had the highest custody rate in 2017, at 35.7%; White and Black offenders had similar custody rates (at 32.8% and 33.1% respectively), the Other (including Chinese) group had a custody rate of 35.0%, and the Mixed group had the lowest custody rate in 2017, at 32.3%

5. By ethnicity and age group (custody only)

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2009 to 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Custody rate by ethnicity and age group over time

	Asian Adults			Asian Juveniles			Asian Young adults			Black Adults			Black Juveniles			Black Young adults			Mixed Adults			Mixed Juveniles			Mixed Young adults			Not stated Adults			Not stated Juveniles			Not stated Young adults			Other including Chinese Adults			Other including Chinese Juveniles			Other including Chinese Young adults			White Adults			White Juveniles			White Young adults
Year	Asian Adults Value	Asian Adults Immediate Custody	Asian Adults all sentenced	Asian Juveniles Value	Asian Juveniles Immediate Custody	Asian Juveniles all sentenced	Asian Young adults Value	Asian Young adults Immediate Custody	Asian Young adults all sentenced	Black Adults Value	Black Adults Immediate Custody	Black Adults all sentenced	Black Juveniles Value	Black Juveniles Immediate Custody	Black Juveniles all sentenced	Black Young adults Value	Black Young adults Immediate Custody	Black Young adults all sentenced	Mixed Adults Value	Mixed Adults Immediate Custody	Mixed Adults all sentenced	Mixed Juveniles Value	Mixed Juveniles Immediate Custody	Mixed Juveniles all sentenced	Mixed Young adults Value	Mixed Young adults Immediate Custody	Mixed Young adults all sentenced	Not stated Adults Value	Not stated Adults Immediate Custody	Not stated Adults all sentenced	Not stated Juveniles Value	Not stated Juveniles Immediate Custody	Not stated Juveniles all sentenced	Not stated Young adults Value	Not stated Young adults Immediate Custody	Not stated Young adults all sentenced	Other inc Chinese Adults Value	Other inc Chinese Adults Immediate Custody	Other inc Chinese Adults all sentenced	Other inc Chinese Juveniles Value	Other inc Chinese Juveniles Immediate Custody	Other inc Chinese Juveniles all sentenced	Other inc Chinese Young adults Value	Other inc Chinese Young adults Immediate Custody	Other inc Chinese Young adults all sentenced	White Adults Value	White Adults Immediate Custody	White Adults all sentenced	White Juveniles Value	White Juveniles Immediate Custody	White Juveniles all sentenced	White Young adults Value	White Young adults Immediate Custody	White Young adults all sentenced
2009	32.5	3,316	10,202	10.9	177	1,629	25.4	453	1,784	33.4	5,446	16,283	11.4	437	3,835	28.3	917	3,244	28.1	1,277	4,543	10.9	218	1,991	24.6	374	1,521	32.2	12,474	38,730	15.5	669	4,319	36.3	2,068	5,693	44.3	1,356	3,060	14.1	44	311	26.6	106	398	24.9	41,145	165,209	8.6	2,733	31,900	22.1	7,055	31,938
2010	32.2	3,809	11,834	12.6	215	1,708	27.6	585	2,116	32.4	5,880	18,171	11.7	493	4,219	27.7	1,063	3,834	27.3	1,549	5,674	10.1	203	2,016	24.0	439	1,826	24.2	6,875	28,458	11.9	379	3,184	28.0	942	3,359	42.3	1,491	3,527	11.5	35	305	31.7	145	458	25.5	49,016	192,017	7.9	2,378	30,065	21.5	7,442	34,649
2011	34.1	4,036	11,831	13.7	230	1,678	28.4	626	2,204	33.9	6,237	18,410	13.9	601	4,316	32.0	1,196	3,740	31.1	1,846	5,938	10.5	214	2,032	30.0	503	1,679	23.4	6,422	27,425	12.0	386	3,209	24.4	660	2,700	41.0	1,313	3,206	13.8	45	326	36.7	160	436	27.4	53,569	195,524	9.0	2,273	25,324	22.6	7,190	31,816
2012	35.1	3,743	10,652	11.2	153	1,366	29.6	542	1,828	34.5	5,704	16,528	14.2	467	3,297	32.0	1,013	3,161	32.0	1,774	5,552	10.7	160	1,489	28.1	387	1,375	26.7	7,329	27,482	11.6	354	3,056	26.9	791	2,940	42.7	1,207	2,825	14.2	41	289	36.6	140	382	27.8	50,219	180,409	8.3	1,534	18,557	22.1	5,501	24,901
2013	33.4	3,534	10,591	11.1	119	1,075	28.4	413	1,452	32.2	5,242	16,287	12.5	324	2,582	28.9	817	2,829	31.5	1,736	5,510	11.2	125	1,113	27.0	337	1,246	25.7	7,570	29,420	12.8	308	2,409	25.5	674	2,645	40.8	1,180	2,889	10.3	21	203	26.7	90	337	28.1	49,757	176,838	8.7	1,191	13,663	22.4	4,522	20,211
2014	34.4	3,476	10,115	10.9	90	822	26.5	379	1,431	32.6	5,101	15,652	11.4	240	2,102	28.1	805	2,864	31.4	1,615	5,142	10.4	102	979	26.7	289	1,084	23.0	7,483	32,522	10.2	219	2,140	25.5	686	2,688	38.2	930	2,435	9.9	15	151	31.8	97	305	28.7	48,975	170,379	8.4	953	11,374	23.8	4,318	18,145
2015	35.8	3,508	9,802	15.2	118	775	27.4	356	1,298	33.3	4,955	14,889	12.9	256	1,985	29.3	816	2,788	32.0	1,648	5,147	9.8	86	882	26.0	256	983	24.3	8,646	35,515	10.1	227	2,250	26.6	735	2,762	37.3	892	2,390	15.0	27	180	31.3	98	313	30.2	47,303	156,804	9.1	854	9,357	23.7	3,581	15,107
2016	37.2	3,586	9,641	13.1	96	735	27.3	356	1,306	34.4	5,134	14,938	11.9	237	1,992	29.1	852	2,928	35.0	1,572	4,492	10.2	72	703	31.1	273	879	27.7	10,856	39,143	10.9	276	2,522	28.4	910	3,202	35.6	723	2,031	11.1	17	153	29.5	87	295	32.7	45,061	137,908	9.2	674	7,347	25.7	3,162	12,295
2017	38.1	3,307	8,683	10.3	61	593	31.5	390	1,237	36.1	4,863	13,460	13.7	263	1,917	31.6	875	2,765	35.6	1,384	3,885	11.4	67	586	31.7	253	799	28.8	12,064	41,839	11.1	375	3,369	28.4	999	3,512	37.6	685	1,821	8.2	12	146	31.2	79	253	34.5	42,171	122,374	9.9	621	6,291	26.7	2,713	10,169

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Sentences and custody By ethnicity and age group (custody only) Summary

The ‘custody rate’ is the percentage of offenders given an immediate custodial sentence, out of all offenders being sentenced in court for indictable offences.

This data shows that:

• out of all age and ethnic group combinations, Asian adult offenders, and those from the Other (including Chinese) group, had the highest custody rate for indictable offences (at 38.1% and 37.6% respectively)

• among juveniles, Black offenders had the highest custody rate, at 13.7%, compared with 9.9% for White and 10.3% for Asian juvenile offenders

• White offenders had the lowest custody rates among young adults (18 to 20 years) and adult offenders (21 years and over), and offenders from the Other (including Chinese) ethnic group had the lowest custody rate among juveniles, although this finding is based on a small number of offenders

6. By ethnicity and gender (custody only)

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2009 to 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Custody rate by ethnicity and gender over time.

	Asian Female		Asian Male		Black Female		Black Male		Mixed Female		Mixed Male		Other including Chinese Female		Other including Chinese Male		White Female		White Male
Year	Asian Female Custody rate (%)	Asian Female Immediate custodial sentence	Asian Male Custody rate (%)	Asian Male Immediate custodial sentence	Black Female Custody rate (%)	Black Female Immediate custodial sentence	Black Male Custody rate (%)	Black Male Immediate custodial sentence	Mixed Female Custody rate (%)	Mixed Female Immediate custodial sentence	Mixed Male Custody rate (%)	Mixed Male Immediate custodial sentence	Other inc Chinese Female Custody rate (%)	Other inc Chinese Female Immediate custodial sentence	Other inc Chinese Male Custody rate (%)	Other inc Chinese Male Immediate custodial sentence	White Female Custody rate (%)	White Female Immediate custodial sentence	White Male Custody rate (%)	White Male Immediate custodial sentence
2009	18.4	155	29.7	3,788	21.7	638	30.2	6,155	14.0	169	24.8	1,699	29.9	168	41.8	1,336	13.0	4,488	23.9	46,408
2010	17.4	164	30.2	4,443	20.6	640	29.4	6,792	15.8	219	24.3	1,972	26.0	158	41.1	1,512	13.3	5,030	24.6	53,795
2011	18.9	171	31.9	4,718	22.4	624	31.3	7,408	17.5	235	28.0	2,327	26.1	134	40.1	1,384	14.6	5,275	26.7	57,733
2012	18.8	142	32.9	4,296	21.9	491	32.3	6,686	20.7	217	28.6	2,103	27.2	120	41.5	1,265	15.1	4,831	27.3	52,395
2013	15.7	114	31.9	3,947	20.4	397	30.3	5,981	17.5	167	29.4	2,030	23.4	101	39.8	1,189	15.3	4,603	28.2	50,828
2014	18.4	122	32.7	3,818	19.7	386	30.9	5,755	16.5	166	29.7	1,837	24.7	94	37.7	946	16.6	4,979	29.0	49,211
2015	16.3	106	34.6	3,870	19.1	355	31.9	5,668	19.4	188	29.8	1,799	20.0	74	37.5	940	17.5	4,776	30.5	46,919
2016	19.9	126	35.5	3,910	21.0	354	32.3	5,853	20.4	150	33.1	1,762	20.9	58	35.0	769	19.0	4,511	33.2	44,323
2017	20.9	106	36.6	3,644	20.5	290	34.2	5,702	23.4	159	33.7	1,541	24.5	62	36.4	714	21.3	4,451	34.9	40,998

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Sentences and custody By ethnicity and gender (custody only) Summary

The ‘custody rate’ is the percentage of offenders given an immediate custodial sentence, out of all offenders being sentenced in court for serious indictable offences.

This data shows that:

• in all ethnic groups, female offenders had a lower custody rate for indictable offences than male offenders of the same ethnicity
• the custody rate was highest in 2017 for Asian male offenders (at 36.6%), and lowest for Black female offenders (at 20.5%)
• in 2017, the custody rate among male offenders was lowest for those from the Mixed and Black ethnic groups (at 33.7% and 34.2% respectively), while the custody rate for female offenders was lowest for those from the Black and Asian ethnic groups (at 20.5% and 20.9% respectively)
• the custody rate for female offenders from the Mixed group changed the most over the period studied, from 14.0% in 2009 to 23.4% in 2017

7. By ethnicity of offender (all types of sentences)

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Number and percentage of sentences by ethnicity of offender and type of sentence

	All		Asian		Black		Mixed		White		Other including Chinese
Outcome	All %	All Number sentenced	Asian %	Asian Number sentenced	Black %	Black Number sentenced	Mixed %	Mixed Number sentenced	White %	White Number sentenced	Other inc Chinese %	Other inc Chinese Number sentenced
Immediate custody	33.0	57,744	35.7	3,758	33.1	6,001	32.3	1,704	32.8	45,505	35.0	776
Suspended sentence	17.0	29,711	17.4	1,830	15.1	2,744	15.7	829	17.3	23,966	15.4	342
Community sentence	19.9	34,742	18.5	1,940	19.7	3,565	22.1	1,165	19.9	27,640	19.5	432
Fine	16.5	28,923	18.3	1,923	20.6	3,734	18.2	959	15.8	21,926	17.2	381
Absolute discharge	0.4	636	0.3	27	0.3	51	0.2	11	0.4	540	0.3	7
Conditional discharge	9.3	16,200	6.8	720	7.9	1,435	7.9	415	9.7	13,439	8.6	191
Compensation	0.8	1,450	0.2	22	0.3	52	0.5	27	1.0	1,334	0.7	15
Otherwise dealt with	3.2	5,573	2.8	293	3.1	560	3.0	160	3.2	4,484	3.4	76

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Summary of Sentences and custody By ethnicity of offender (all types of sentences) Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2017, 175,000 offenders whose ethnicity was known were sentenced in court for indictable offences – of those, 33% were given an immediate custodial sentence, 19.9% were given a community sentence, 16.5% were fined and 17% received a suspended sentence order
• the most common sentence for indictable offences for all ethnic groups was immediate custody
• out of all ethnic groups, the Asian group had the highest percentage of offenders given an immediate custodial sentence (at 35.7%), the Black group had the highest percentage given a fine (20.6%), and the White group had the highest percentage given a conditional discharge (9.7%)

8. By ethnicity of offender and type of offence (custody only)

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Number and percentage of custodial sentences by type of offence and ethnicity of offender

	Asian			Black			Mixed			White			Other including Chinese
Offence Group	Asian %	Asian Custodial sentence	Asian All sentenced	Black %	Black Custodial sentence	Black All sentenced	Mixed %	Mixed Custodial sentence	Mixed All sentenced	White %	White Custodial sentence	White All sentenced	Other inc Chinese %	Other inc Chinese Custodial sentence	Other inc Chinese All sentenced
Criminal damage and arson	42.4	25	59	30.3	23	76	34.5	10	29	33.4	454	1,361	13.3	2	15
Drug offences	27.1	790	2,913	22.9	1,393	6,084	21.6	304	1,407	20.5	3,957	19,336	27.1	123	454
Fraud Offences	41.4	163	394	32.3	184	570	27.9	29	104	28.9	988	3,422	34.3	34	99
Miscellaneous crimes against society	39.3	582	1,480	34.9	615	1,761	35.4	186	526	30.4	4,770	15,700	43.4	144	332
Possession of weapons	35.3	262	743	37.9	776	2,050	31.6	149	471	34.4	2,498	7,270	36.0	54	150
Public order offences	28.0	211	753	27.5	336	1,222	27.7	86	311	30.3	3,388	11,192	29.1	37	127
Robbery	63.9	147	230	54.5	321	589	59.1	110	186	79.1	1,760	2,225	58.1	25	43
Sexual offences	53.6	232	433	60.2	263	437	56.4	53	94	60.9	2,686	4,410	55.1	59	107
Theft Offences	33.5	717	2,143	33.0	1,179	3,576	31.9	475	1,490	31.2	17,169	54,948	29.7	195	657
Violence against the person	46.1	629	1,365	51.3	911	1,777	46.3	302	652	41.3	7,835	18,970	43.6	103	236

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Sentences and custody By ethnicity of offender and type of offence (custody only) Summary

The data shows that:

• in 2017, the lowest custody rates were for offenders from the Other (including Chinese) group convicted of criminal damage and arson (13.3%), and for White offenders convicted of drug offences (20.5%)
• the highest custody rates were for White offenders convicted of robbery (79.1%), followed by Asian offenders convicted of robbery (63.9%)
• for criminal damage and arson, drug offences, fraud offences and theft offences, offenders from the Asian ethnic group had the highest custody rates, at 42.4%, 27.1%, 41.4%, and 33.5% respectively
• Black offenders had the highest custody rates for possession of weapons (37.9%) and violence against the person (51.3%)
• White offenders had the highest custody rate for public order offences (30.3%), robbery (79.1%) and sexual offences (60.9%)

9. Data sources

Source

Criminal justice statistics

Type of data

Administrative data

Type of statistic

Official statistics

Publisher

Ministry of Justice

Publication frequency

Quarterly

Purpose of data source

The data is used by the government to develop, monitor and evaluate criminal justice policy. It reports on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales, giving information for the latest year and longer-term trends.

10. Download the data

Sentences (2017 data) - Spreadsheet (csv) 36 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, type of offence, type of sentence,numerator, denominator, value

Custody rate 2009-2017 - Spreadsheet (csv) 75 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, gender, age group, value, numerator, denominator

Publication release date: 10 October 2018

Updated: 8 August 2023

full page history

1. 8 August 2023 updated dataset to make it more machine readable - fixed ethnicity_type column
2. 11 December 2020 Moved all contextual information to ‘Things you need to know’ and its new subsections. Increased visibility by adding it to the table of contents. Removed any duplication and added links to content about understanding our data. Charts, tables and the data file have not been updated.
3. 27 April 2020 Description added for search engines.
4. 14 May 2019 Some headings have been changed. No data or commentary has been updated.
5. 10 October 2018 Update with the latest data (2017)

From: Ministry of Justice

Previous edition:

1. 2 March 2018

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