BMAT 2017 · Question 9 · Supporting arguments

The following set of data is from a nine-year study of reoffending and reconviction rates in the UK. The study followed a cohort of 42,721 offenders who were released from prison in 2000 or given a non-custodial sentence in 2000. All figures are cumulative and relate only to offences that resulted in a conviction. No adjustment was made for factors that might account for a decline in the rate of reconvictions over time. Additional data was collected on offenders who had served custodial sentences and who were released from prison in 2000. Offenders who received longer sentences (four years and over) formed 2.3 per cent of the cohort. Offenders who received shorter sentences (less than twelve months) formed 24.2 per cent of the cohort, but committed 39 per cent of all offences that led to a conviction in the first year of the follow-up.

Which of the following statements is supported by the table and accompanying information? 1 Over 77 per cent of all offenders who were reconvicted within the two year follow-up period were actually reconvicted in the first year. 2 Of all offences resulting in a reconviction in the nine year follow-up period, at least one third occurred in years 2 and 3. 3 In the first year of the follow-up period there were at least 77,000 reconvictions.