UK: Who Are the Rioters and What’s Happening to Them?
The British newspaper The Guardian has compiled data on who is being arrested for the recent riots in the United Kingdom.
It makes for a fascinating story:
In an indication of the tough justice being meted out to people accused of offences related to this week’s riots, a Guardian analysis of more than 120 cases before magistrates courts so far has found the majority of defendants being remanded in custody – even when they have pleaded guilty to relatively minor offences.
As hundreds of cases fly through specially-convened night sittings of magistrates courts, the Guardian is embarking on a project to catalogue who is going to court and what is happening to them.
People facing court charged with riot-related offences are overwhelmingly young, male and unemployed. Those who are found guilty are receiving prison sentences – or being passed onto higher courts for sentencing. Out of the 1.7m cases heard in magistrates courts last year, only 3.5% were remanded to jail. These figures from this week show a rate of nearly 60%.
The accused have been charged mainly with burglary or violent disorder, we have not yet identified a single charge of riot – which is also an offence.
We wanted to know the answers to some of the key questions: how old are they? Are they in work? Where do they come from?
The data is being continuously updated as part of the newspaper’s coverage and analysis of events.
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