Ministry of Justice Releases Arrest Figures

(Posted on 24/02/12)

One thousand is a nice, round number - it's also what the Ministry of Justice says is the number of prison sentences handed down of those arrested during the riots that unfolded last summer. Nearly 1,500 have been found guilty and many solicitors in the UK have been quite busy defending their clients. These legal resolutions account for only slightly more than half of those arrested.

The report, released on Thursday, also says the average prison sentence has been 14 months. What's interesting is this average is more than four times the sentence lengths for other similar crimes in 2010 as a whole. Delving further in the report, one discovers even the offences themselves are listed, along with the percentages of those charged with any particular crime. Among them is burglary, which accounted for nearly half - 49% - of the arrests. Others include violent disorder, theft and criminal damage - 21%, 16% and 2%, respectively.

If you're thinking this is a group of older citizens then again, most of the arrested are under the age of twenty and a full quarter of those are under the age of 18. The reports says this is a far younger number of folks who must come to court for these types of charges.

An interesting footnote: a whopping 90% of those who were arrested were male.

You may recall the London Riots occurred in early August and were considered "peaceful" at first. They were begun due to the death of a man, shot by police, on August 4th. The rioting initially began in North London. The protests soon spread across the country. There were many reports of arson and looting and each day brought new clashes between police and the protests. Political leaders cut vacations short as they sought to bring an end to the violent riots. Close to 20 folks were injured and the damage was massive to various properties.

Ask a solicitor a question
About Us
FAQ
For Solicitors
14 solicitor reviews

3,120,002 page views