NCJ Number
157460
Date Published
1995
Length
88 pages
Annotation
This commentary on Northern Ireland's criminal justice statistics for 1994 encompasses notifiable offenses recorded by the police, offenses cleared by the police, court proceedings, sentencing, and the prison population.
Abstract
The 67,886 notifiable offenses recorded by the police in 1994 constituted a 2.5-percent increase in recorded crime compared to 1993; theft was the largest offense group (49 percent). There were 24,342 notifiable offenses cleared by the police in 1994. This was 11 percent more crimes cleared than in 1985 and represents an overall clearance rate of 36 percent. The number of defendants processed through magistrates' courts in 1994 decreased by 2 percent compared to the previous year. Traffic offenses accounted for 61 percent of the court's business. The number of defendants processed in the Crown Court was 1,217, the lowest total for over a decade. Eighty-six percent of defendants in the magistrates' court and 77 percent of defendants in the Crown Court pled guilty. Of those pleading not guilty, 86 percent in magistrates' courts and 56 percent in Crown Courts were acquitted. In the Crown Court the most often used sentence was immediate custody. In magistrates' courts, a fine was the most common disposition. In 1994 the average daily prison population in Northern Ireland prisons was 1,899, a 2-percent decrease from the previous year's level of 1,934. Since 1985 the average daily inmate population has decreased by 10 percent. Appended information on the coverage of notifiable and indictable offenses, the criminal courts, and sentences available to the court, 38 tables, and 41 figures