Crime levels show little change in latest year: figures

Recorded crime levels in Scotland were virtually unchanged in 2019-20 compared with the previous year, according to the latest official figures.

The total number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland increased from 246,480 to 246,516, continuing the trend of the reduced levels seen in recent years when looking at the period since 1974.

The new figures include 1,681 crimes recorded under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which came into force on 1 April 2019. A further 107 crimes were recorded at the end of the 12 month period under the Coronavirus Act 2020 and the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulation 2020

Other main findings include:

• non-sexual crimes of violence increased by 16%, but without the domestic abuse figures, this category decreased by 5%;
• sexual crimes decreased by 1% from 13,547 to 13,364, the first reduction since 2008-09 though still at a historically high level;
• crimes of dishonesty decreased by 3%, from 114,506 to 111,409, and of fireraising, vandalism etc decreased by 1% from 47,997 to 47,731, both categories at their lowest level since the 1970s;
• other crimes increased by 3% from 62,422 to 64,589. Most of these crimes relate to drug possession, crimes against public justice or handling offensive weapons.

Between 2018-19 and 2019-20 the police clear-up rate increased by 0.6 percentage points (based on unrounded figures), from 51.0% to 51.5%. "Other crimes" (90.0%), non-sexual crimes of violence (71.7%) and sexual crime (56.3%) had higher clear-up rates than crimes of dishonesty (37.1%) and fireraising, vandalism etc (26.6%).

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf commented: "I am pleased that victims of domestic abuse have confidence in the collective actions of Scotland’s police and wider justice and third sector partners, to come forward and report these cases. Reports under these new laws, which reflect the reality of many domestic abuse victims, account for the rise in overall non-sexual violence recorded by police last year. We must learn from our success in reducing violence on our streets to help keep people safer in their homes, in particular those who are subjected to, or at risk of, domestic abuse."

He added that the Scottish Parliament would soon consider further legislation to give police and courts powers to remove domestic abusers from victims’ homes.

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