In 2021/22 a new crime group structure was introduced for recorded crime statistics, and the 2021/22 annual bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-22 was the first to reflect this new structure. The most significant change was the re-categorisation of common assault and stalking from the Miscellaneous offences group to the ‘non-sexual crimes of violence group’. The data has been back-revised to ensure that time series analysis could be maintained.
Trends in crime and violence recorded by the police.
Trends in crime and violence captured by survey data.
Trends in crime and violence recorded by the police
In 2021/22 the police recorded a total of 286,464 crimes and 180,913 offences. The term 'crime' is generally used for the more serious criminal acts; the less serious acts are termed 'offences', although the term 'offence' may also be used in relation to serious breaches of criminal law. The distinction is only for reporting of statistics and has no connection to how police investigate criminal activity.
Between 2020/21 and 2021/22 the total number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland declined from 299,452 to 286,464 (a reduction of 4%).
Recorded crime remains at one of the lowest levels since 1974. For the long-term trends in crime recorded by the police See ‘Crimes recorded by the police by crime group, 1971 to 1994, 1995-96 to 2021-22’ in Recorded Crime in Scotland 2021/22 on page 15.
Total crimes are grouped into six categories: non-sexual crimes of violence; sexual crimes; crimes of dishonesty, damage and reckless behaviour; crimes against society; and Coronavirus restrictions.
In terms of the breakdown by type of crime:
'Non-sexual crimes of violence' accounted for 24% of all crimes recorded by the police in 2021/22.
'Sexual crimes' (including rape and attempted rape, sexual assault and prostitution, causing to view sexual activity or images, communicating indecently, threatening to/disclosing intimate images, indecent photos of children and other sexual crimes) accounted for 5% of all recorded crime in Scotland in 2021/22. A total of 15,049 crimes were recorded in this category in 2021/22; this represents an increase of 15% since 2020-21. 2017/18 was the first year that ‘disclosing or threatening to disclose an intimate image’ was recorded as a crime, following the enactment of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016. There has been a upward trend in sexual crimes recorded in Scotland over the longer term since 1971. Legislative changes as well as changes in categorisation of crimes must be considered when interpreting the trends in these crimes. Please see Recorded Crime in Scotland 2021/22 for more detail.
'Crimes of dishonesty' (including theft, shoplifting, housebreaking and fraud) accounted for 32% of all recorded crime in Scotland in 2021/22. A total of 92,873 crimes were recorded in this category in 2021/22; up 4% from 89,731 in 2020/21.
'Crimes against society' accounted for 21% of all recorded crime in Scotland in 2021/22. This category was previously called ‘Other crimes’. In 2021/22 the number of ‘Crimes against society’ recorded by the police was 61,059, a decrease of 14% from 70,737 in 2020/21.
'Damage and reckless behaviour' accounted for 15% of all recorded crime in Scotland in 2021/22. The number of recorded crimes of 'Damage and reckless behaviour' was 44,284 in 2021/22, up 3% from 42,964 in 2020/21.
Crimes relating to Coronavirus restrictions accounted for 1% of all recorded crime in Scotland in 2021/22, a total of 3,913 crimes were recorded in 2021/22 compared to 20,976 crimes recorded in 2020/21.
Non-sexual crimes of violence are further categorised into: murder and culpable homicide; death by dangerous driving; serious assault and attempted murder; common assault; robbery; crimes under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018; and other non-sexual violence.
This is a new grouping structure, where, among other changes, ‘common assault’ and ‘stalking’ were reclassified as crimes (not offences) and now included in 'non-sexual crimes of violence'. Common assault now constitutes the majority of non-sexual crimes of violence (84% in 2021-22).
Taking into account these new crime categories the number of non-sexual crimes of violence recorded by the police increased by 12% from 61,913 in 2020/21 to 69,286 in 2021/22. As the vast majority (84% as above) of non-sexual crimes of violence are now common assault, this increase can be largely attributed to an increase in common assault.
For the long-term trend in recorded non-sexual crimes of violence, see Chart 4: Non-sexual crimes of violence recorded by the police, 1971 to 1994, 1995-1996 to 2021-22 in Recorded Crime in Scotland on page 18.
In terms of break down by type of non-sexual crime of violence:
Murder and culpable homicide. There has been a 21% decrease in homicides across Scotland over the last 10 years.
Death by dangerous driving accounted for less than 1% of non-sexual crimes of violence in 2021/22. Although there has been an overall increase in crimes in this category from 2012/13 to 2021/22, there was a 13% decrease from 39 crimes in 2020/21 to 34 crimes in 2021/22.
Serious assault and attempted murder accounted for 6% of non-sexual crimes of violence in Scotland in 2021/22.
Common assault was added to the non-sexual crimes of violence group with the new crime group structure and, as outlined above, accounts for 84% of crimes in this category in 2021/22. There has been a general trend of a 4% reduction in this category over the ten years between 2012/13 and 2021/22 but a 12% increase was observed from 52,052 crimes in 2020/21 to 58,306 in 2021/22. This may be reflecting the low levels of common assault during pandemic lockdowns in 2020/21.
Robbery accounted for 2% of non-sexual crime of violence in 2021/22. In the ten years between 2012/13 and 2021/22 there has been a decrease in this category of 12%. Crimes recorded in this category decreased from 1,673 in 2020/21 to 1,613 in 2021/22.
Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 crimes accounted for 3% of non-sexual crimes of violence in 2021/22. Since 1st April 2019 non-sexual crimes of violence included abusive behaviour as a course of conduct towards a partner or ex-partner, under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018*. In 2021/22 there were 1,760 crimes recorded under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, a 7% increase from 1,641 crimes in 2020/21. Of these 92% were incidents in which the victim was female and the perpetrator was male.
Other non-sexual violence accounted for 5% of non-sexual crimes of violence in 2021/22. Changes to the crime grouping structure have meant stalking has been added to this category. Please see Recorded Crime in Scotland 2021/22 for details on trends in this category.
* ‘Course of conduct’ refers to a series of acts over a period of time that evidence a continuity of purpose. Crimes under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 relate to a course of conduct only and so other domestic abuse incidents not involving a course of conduct element will not be recorded as Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act crimes.
Trends in crime and violence captured by survey data
Crime recorded by the police fails to reveal the incidence of all crime committed across Scotland; this is because a high proportion of crimes are not reported to the police. In Scotland, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) is a national survey of people's experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland.
However, the most recent data available for the SCJS is for 2019/20 as face-to-face interviewing could not be conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. A one-off survey of a sample of previous SCJS respondents were contacted by phone as part of the Scottish Victimisation Telephone Survey (SVTS) in September and October 2020. However, the SVTS should not be considered as a replacement to the SCJS and it is not intended that this will be repeated, so we have reported here only the most up to date SCJS findings from 2019/20.
In 2019/20, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey estimated that the police became aware of two-fifths (40%) of crime, a similar proportion to other years.
The 2019/20 SCJS estimated that there were:
Approximately 563,000 crimes experienced by adults. Of these an estimated 369,000 (66%) were crimes to property and 194,000 (34%) were violent crimes.
This represents a fall of 46% in the overall level of crime, and 39% fall in violent crime since 2008/09.
11.9% of adults were victims of at least one crime in 2019/20. The majority of such victimisation related to property crime, such that it is estimated that 10.0% of all adults, had experienced property crime, including housebreaking and other household theft, vehicle theft and vandalism. In comparison 2.5% of people had been a victim of violent crime, such as assault or robbery. People under 25 years of age, those living in the most deprived areas in Scotland, and those living in urban areas were most likely to experience crime.
The Scottish Household Survey asks respondents whether they feel very or fairly safe when walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark and whether they feel safe at home alone at night. Based on the 2019 survey (the most recent non-telephone survey), it was estimated that 83% of adults felt very or fairly safe when walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark.
Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.
