Recorded crimes slightly up after reaching long term low

Recorded crime in Scotland in 2017-18 saw a 1% rise overall, according to figures from Scotland’s Chief Statistician released today.

The total of 244,504 crimes recorded by the police is the second lowest level of recorded crime since 1974. The figure (but not the percentage comparison) includes an additional 4,163 crimes of handling an offensive weapon, which are now included in the statistics for all cases where the weapon was used in a public place to commit a crime or offence against another person, but which were only recorded from 2017-18 onwards.

However the clear-up rate showed a further decline, from 50% to 49.1% (excluding the additionally recorded offensive weapon figures), after dropping from 51.6% the previous year.

The main findings include:

• Non-sexual crimes of violence recorded by the police increased by 1% from 7,164 in 2016-17 to 7,251 in 2017-18.
• Sexual crimes increased by 13% from 11,092 in 2016-17 to 12,487 in 2017-18a new high for the period for which comparable figures are available (since 1971). Part of this increase includes 421 new crimes of disclosing or threatening to disclose an intimate image under the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016.
• Crimes of dishonesty increased by 1% from 113,205 in 2016-17 to 114,474 in 2017-18.
• Crimes of fireraising, vandalism etc decreased by 2% from 52,514 in 2016-17 to 51,322 in 2017-18, the lowest level seen since 1978.
• Other crimes (including drugs and crimes against public justice) remained at similar levels to 2016-17 – excluding the additional crimes mentioned of handling an offensive weapon.

Meanwhile offences recorded by the police decreased by 9%, from 288,691 to 264,027. These comprise 138,168 motor vehicle offences, down 8%, and 137,012 miscellaneous offences, down by 9%.

Also today, the Scottish Government published an in-depth study into cases of muggings – robbery in public settings, by strangers – which show that the numbers have more than halved over the past decade, from 2,080 in 2008-09 to 860 in 2017-18. The use of a knife or other bladed/pointed articles in robbery has also dropped from an estimated 1,270 to 550 over the same period.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf claimed a success for pioneering work across the justice system, NHS, schools and other partners to prevent crime at its source.

"Our approach to tacking violence in our communities is now held up as a model for the rest of the world, with London introducing a Violence Reduction Unit based on the success of the Scottish public health approach", he stated.

"It is also why we have set up an expert group looking at new action to prevent sexual crime, of which we know increases are being driven by a growth in online crime, greater confidence in reporting and a long-term rise in historical cases."

Click here for the full statistical publication, and here for the study of robbery.