The author has been involved in research into the use of something known as compensation orders in Scottish courts (The Use of the Compensation Order in Scotland, J Hamilton and M Wisniewski, Scottish Office Central Research Unit, 1996). Convicted offenders can be ordered to pay compensation to those suffering loss or injury from the crime which led to conviction. For example, if someone is convicted of breaking all the windows in my house, the court can order them to pay me compensation to get the windows replaced.

The research investigated the use of such orders by Scottish courts. As part of the research, a sample of convictions and compensation orders was taken from four individual courts and records checked several months afterwards to see whether in fact the offender had paid the compensation to the victim. It was found that the payment outcome might fall into one of three categories:

● Paid in full: the full amount of the compensation ordered by the court had been paid by the offender.

● Part paid: only part of the amount had been paid.

● Nothing paid: none of the compensation had been paid.

The results for the four courts are shown in Table 7.13.

The payment outcome was also assessed by the gender of the offender, as shown in Table 7.14.

EXERCISES 259 Payment of compensation orders by court (figures relate to no. of compensation orders)

Payment outcome Court Paid in full Part paid Nothing paid Total A 274 25 15 314 B 250 24 24 298 C 136 9 7 152 D 252 11 21 284 Total 912 69 67 1048 Table 7.13

(a) Determine whether the payment outcome shows any difference between the four courts.

(b) Determine whether the payment outcome shows any difference between offender gender.