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Scottish Sentencing Council Logo
  1. Home
  2. Sentencing guidelines
  3. Guidelines in development
  4. Sexual offences

Sexual offences

The Council is currently developing sentencing guidelines on sexual offences in relation to rape, sexual assault, and indecent images of children.

Sexual offending has increasingly become an area of public concern in recent years, with increased reporting, prevention, and enforcement action. Sexual offences account for a high proportion of sentencing, particularly in the High Court, often involving difficult decisions in complex circumstances. This is an area of great importance in which we believe sentencing guidelines would bring significant benefits to the judiciary, those involved in such cases, and the wider public.

Given the wide-ranging nature of sexual offending, the Council has decided to develop multiple guidelines focusing on particular sexual offences, rather than a single guideline covering all offences. This will allow each topic to be given in-depth consideration, and for the first guidelines on sexual offending to be produced more quickly.

A stakeholder conference on sexual offending in 2018 to help identify particular challenges in sentencing, priority areas for guidance, and topics for further research. Through this and other events and research,  constructive discussions have been held with the judiciary, victim support organisations, criminal justice agencies, academics, and other interested organisations and individuals.  

Current Stage

This guideline is currently at Stage 2 of processing and is being dealt with by the Sexual Offences committee.

Publications

public perceptions sexual offences
public perceptions sexual offences
Download public perceptions sexual offences PDF
Sexual offences involving rape literature review
Sexual offences involving rape literature review
Download Sexual offences involving rape literature review PDF
Sexual offences involving sexual assault Literature Review
Sexual offences involving sexual assault Literature Review
Download Sexual offences involving sexual assault Literature Review PDF
20190509-letter-from-ljc-to-cab-sec-re-sexual-offences.pdf
20190509-letter-from-ljc-to-cab-sec-re-sexual-offences.pdf
Download 20190509-letter-from-ljc-to-cab-sec-re-sexual-offences.pdf PDF
Sentencing of sexual offences conference report
Sentencing of sexual offences conference report
Download Sentencing of sexual offences conference report PDF

News release announcing sexual offences guidelines

Contact us/ media enquiries

Scottish Sentencing Council, Parliament House, Edinburgh, EH1 1RQ

Tel: 0300 790 0006 Email: sentencingcouncil@scotcourts.gov.uk
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