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One in three Scottish men 'likely to have a criminal record'
More than a third of men and almost one in ten women in Scotland are likely to have at least one criminal conviction, according to a new report.
The figures were revealed in a research paper examining changes to the law governing when criminal convictions are considered spent.
In was produced in response to a Scottish Government consultation on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) to be launched this summer.
The act has been criticised for not achieving the right balance between protecting the public and allowing people to put their previous offending behaviour behind them and get back into employment.
Concerns have been raised that rehabilitation periods set out in law are too long and offenders face stigma while waiting for a criminal record to expire.
A significant portion of the population faces regular criminal record checks, researchers from the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) found.
Scottish Government analysis of data from the Scottish Offenders Index showed that more than a third (38%) of men and almost one in ten (nine percent) of women born in 1973 are known to have at least one criminal conviction, the report says.
"Extrapolating to the population as a whole, at least one-third of the adult male population and nearly one in ten of the adult female population is likely to have a criminal record," it said.
Disclosure Scotland processes more than one million applications for basic disclosure of criminal convictions every year, the research found.
Authors Paul McGuinness, Fergus McNeill and Sarah Armstrong, from the University of Glasgow, suggest possible reforms to the system including modification of the waiting periods for convictions to become spent and issuing ex-offenders with a certificate of rehabilitation.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We are planning to issue a discussion paper on how the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 might be modernised shortly.
"We do not hold a fixed view about how the regime might be modernised and reformed and this paper is designed to provide all those with potential interest the chance to influence how specific proposals for modernisation and reform might be developed.
"The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 has been on the statue books for nearly 40 years and it is important to ensure the legislation still operates in line with its original purposes of balancing the need to protect the public whilst allowing ex-offenders to be rehabilitated from their previous offending behaviour."
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