12 million people in the UK have a criminal record

[samarrange]

It's true.

33% of men and 9% of women have a criminal record. (The figures in the linked article are from a few years back, but they haven't changed much since. I linked to that page because it has a better breakdown and analysis than any that I've seen with more recent numbers.)

I genuinely don't know what to think about this. I am in my 50s and I don't know anyone with a criminal record (or at least, that I know of). But over the years I have been exposed to a variety of worlds that are, shall we say, less salubrious than my upbringing was, so while 33% of men still seems like a lot, finding that out didn't cause me to keel over in astonishment. (Maybe there is some kind of huge divide, between people who are reading this thinking "Only 33% of men? Round here they're all scrotes", and others who are in fact keeling over in astonishment.)

I learned about these numbers a while ago, but the topic popped into my brain when reading the recent thread about the farmer who shot a burglar. It seems to me that when such a big percentage of society consists of people who transgress against the rules (and of course, to get a criminal record you have to get caught, so the percentage of scrotes offenders is probably even higher), them maybe we have to accept at some level that criminality is part of the background noise of life, like road accidents and heart attacks, rather than something committed by a very tiny minority who we can afford to slag off and then ignore. It turns out that a large part of the population has at least some ambivalence about criminality, to the point that they took part in it themselves. Even if they regret it today, they know what it's like to set out to do something sufficiently illegal to get you arrested. It feels like the old joke that if you owe the bank a thousand pounds then you have a problem, but if you owe the bank a billion pounds then the bank has a problem.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is not to justify crime, or to suggest that I would not cheerfully strangle whoever nicked my bag a few months back (they can keep the cash, but replacing all the documents was a task that made me want to cut off my hand). It's just to try and make sense of the idea that a huge percentage of the people in the same supermarket or on the same holiday flight as me have at some point been in trouble with the law for something other than a motoring offence, and what that might tell us about our society. And again, I honestly don't know what to think about it.

Do the figures include cautions? I know far too many people who accepted one when young who didn't understand the ramifications of doing so, and just wanted to be be released from the police station and go home - including a 17 year old, on their own, not allowed a parent present, tired and scared, in the days before the judgement of Lord Justice Moses.

I work in a senior role in a highly regulated industry where senior execs all have to undergo background checks.

You’d be surprised how many have a criminal record. Most of it is not really serious stuff and much of it is from decades ago but it all comes up on full disclosure checks.

Yup. I once had an excellent senior manager who had some daft conviction for shoplifting a low value item when she was a teenage student, 30 years earlier. A kinder, more efficient person I couldn't hope to meet.

That’s not what the report says?
it says:
“33 per cent of men born in 1953 had been convicted in England and Wales by 2006 of at least one standard list offence before the age of 53 (Standard list offences include all indictable and triable-either-way offences and certain summary offences). Just over half of these had been convicted on only one occasion. 85% were convicted before they were 30 years old.”

same for women, it is only 9% of women born in 1953

Not all men, not all women.

and the 12 million have a criminal record it says
”I can confirm that the number of Nominal records held on the PNC for individuals with a criminal element against their names, as at the latest quarterly report (October 2022) are 12,282,131.”

An individual’s record on the PNC is retained until their 100th birthday, including if they were released with no further action after an arrest. So likely a lot of non criminals and dead people on that list.

Yes- The PNC records details of convictions, cautions, reprimands, warnings and arrests.

So lots of people that have never been convicted of a crime.

They probably just haven't told you. Loads of people have convictions or cautions they just wouldn't mention them to you, I know a teacher (through family) that has a caution for assault but they just wouldn't tell you as it's not exactly something you scream from the roof tops.

Quite surprised it’s not more.

Do the figures include crimes that are no longer a crime? Eg homosexuality?

What about driving offences? Being a bit too drunk and rowdy or incapable as a student? Social drug taking?

There's lots of things that many people have done without being caught where others have and might have attracted police attention and a caution or fine.

@Bjorkdidit
Yes all of that is included. As well as nonpayment of TV license fine…

I know this thread is old-ish, but this figure got quoted on another thread.

I didn't want to derail that one, and then I found this thread when I was searching for the figures.

I really am quite pessimistic about stuff like this, but even I am shocked by 33% of men having a criminal record. I thought it was going to be around 10%.

It will include Cautions as that is a Permanent Criminal Record, making it hard to ever visit US or Canada or work anywhere in the world other than the UK.

The OP who said don’t know anyone with a Criminal Record you either don’t know many people or more likely you don’t realise you do, people don’t go around bragging about it, everyone makes mistakes often as a child. It is highly embarrassing once you get older.

Drink driving is a common criminal offence. Some people will now have lockdown related offences. If you know anyone with any addiction or ex addict even alcoholics they’ll have a criminal record.

Drunk and disorderly a common one. Also drugs 1 pull of a joint when you are a kid and could be landed with a record.

Even a caution stays on your record for life, which most only find out when they try to get a VISA

I know someone who was cautioned over a public misdemeanor about 20 years ago. It hasn't affected their employment prospects. I've known friends of friends or aquaintances who gave been convicted of anything from petty theft to serious sex crimes. Their names pop up in the local paper. I'm not shocked by those statistics at all.

I don't knowingly know anyone with a record, but I got a speeding ticket the other day which started with "intention to prosecute" all over the letter, and I probably do know people who have racked up more points than I ever have - I think a former colleague was banned at one point. I could well work with people who were teenage shoplifters, drunk and disorderly, driving without insurance, no TV licence... a lot of them will be minor things rather than murder or bank robbery.

I came to this thread through the same route as you. Thought the statistic blithely cited on the other thread must be wrong!

I got arrested at 15 for shoplifting,I was given community service to teach me a lesson,I’m 45 now and it’s still in my file.

About 1 in 75 children have had a parent in prison over the course of a year.

I went on a course about it and it really makes you think - think how many children are in your child's primary or secondary school and look at that stat. People don't shout it from the rooftops.

It includes things like speeding tickets, most people will know someone who has been caught speeding, if they removed things like speeding tickets, cautions and not paying to watch the bbc the numbers would be much lower.

I must be on this list then.
Years ago I got pulled over by a (clearly bored and having nothing else to do) traffic copper because one of my headlights wasn't working. I knew, and was actually driving to Halfords at the time, to get a new bulb for it. He asked to see my driving licence and I didn't have it with me, so he said as long as I took it into a police station within 7 days, it would be fine. I turned the house upside-down and couldn't find it. Went into the police station to tell them I couldn't find my driving licence, and the officer said that unfortunately he had to give me a caution anyway, and it was just a formality. He actually apologised to me for having to do it.
Hardly the crime of the century.

Yes, I recruit for a role where DBS is required and it's really common for convictions to show up. Mostly things like theft, common assault and driving offences.

People can have criminal records for all sorts of minor things... driving offences, not buying a train ticket...you may think you don't know anyone with a criminal record but you don't have to be a desperate jailbird to have one...you can just be an average person who did something silly once and doesn't tell everyone they know about it.

According to this report https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-44207104 it excludes motoring convictions and minor offences. It's from a while ago but unlikely to have changed much since then.

I was pretty shocked by it and thought that I didn't know anyone with a criminal record - at which point DH admitted that his dad and another family member have convictions that I had no idea about. A friend also recently told me that he has an old conviction for assault. People don't broadcast it!

I would be on the list. I was given a reprimand for shoplifting a mascara from a pharmacy when I was 16. I'm now nearly 40 and never been in any trouble since but it's not something I advertise as it's embarrassing and was a stupid mistake as a teenager.

It has affected me though as I'd be too embarrassed disclosing it so it's put me off applying for jobs where I'd need a DBS check.

I'm going through security clearance at wo and i'r specifically doesn't include minor speeding offences (but would include driving without due care and attention, that sort of thing.)

Speeding offences and other motoring offences dealt with by a Fixed Penalty Notice or doing a course don't count for these figures. Otherwise the percentages would be way higher.

It's not surprising really. I mean I've broken the law more than once when I was a teenager. I was just lucky I wasn't caught. I'm a normal middle class woman of a certain age with a professional job. But I was a bit daft as a teenager.