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Offenders: Drugs

Answer

Information showing the number of males and females found guilty at all courts for drug offences in England and Wales broken down by age is given in the following table.The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

Number of persons found guilty at all courts for drug offences, England and Wales, 1998 to 2007, broken down by age and sex¹, ², ³
Age	Sex	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	20044	2005	2006	2007
	Male	1,137	1,395	1,748	2,176	2,455	2,630	2,420	2,513	2,431	2,842
	Female	75	92	118	133	155	168	162	186	147	177
10 to 16	Total	1,212	1,487	1,866	2,309	2,610	2,798	2,582	2,699	2,578	3,019
	Male	8,950	9,296	9,251	9,547	10,284	10,399	7,096	6,926	7,277	8,479
	Female	705	775	725	742	735	660	522	521	470	490
17-20	Total	9,655	10,071	9,976	10,289	11,019	11,059	7,618	7,447	7,747	8,969
	Male	9,075	8,829	8,222	8,650	9,348	9,605	6,686	6,450	6,439	7,510
	Female	1,018	966	829	893	907	936	751	675	629	627
21-24	Total	10,093	9,795	9,051	9,543	10,255	10,541	7,437	7,125	7,068	8,137
	Male	10,183	9,592	8,147	7,809	7,963	7,958	6,189	6,114	6,430	7,191
	Female	1,257	1,216	1,003	897	1,011	1,024	844	824	792	825
25-29	Total	11,440	10,808	9,150	8,706	8,974	8,982	7,033	6,938	7,222	8,016
	Male	14,380	14,413	12,697	12,989	14,239	15,490	12,600	12,882	13,073	14,396
	Female	2,041	2,137	1,881	1,785	1,939	2,292	1,927	1,999	1,894	2,028
30 and over	Total	16,421	16,550	14,578	14,774	16,178	17,782	14,527	14,881	14,967	16,424
All ages	Total	48,821	48,711	44,621	45,621	49,036	51,162	39,197	39,090	39,582	44,565
¹ The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
² Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
³ Staffordshire police force were only able to supply a sample of data for magistrates courts proceedings covering one full week in each quarter for 2000. Estimates based on this sample are included in the figures, as they are considered sufficiently robust at this high level of analysis.
4 Cannabis was reclassified from a class B drug to a class C drug in January 2004, which also saw the introduction of the cannabis warning as an out of court disposal.
Source:
Evidence and Analysis Unit—Office for Criminal Justice Reform

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

487 c1912-4W; 254367

Session

2008-09

Subjects

Convictions Drugs

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk