Recorded crime in Scotland: 2018-2019

Recorded Crime In Scotland, 2018-19

This bulletin presents National Statistics on crimes and offences recorded by the police in 2018-19. Statistics on crimes and offences recorded by the police provide a measure of the volume of criminal activity with which the police are faced. Crimes recorded by the police do not reveal the incidence of all crime committed since not all crimes are reported to the police. For a definition of crimes recorded, refer to Annex 1.

Key Points from Recorded Crime in Scotland

Between 2017-18 and 2018-19:

Crimes recorded by the police in Scotland increased by 1% from 244,504 to 246,480. The recording of crime remains at one of the lowest levels seen since 1974.

• Non-sexual crimes of violence increased by 10%, from 7,251 to 8,008. The recording of these crimes remains at a lower level than all years between 1980 and 2011-12.
• Sexual crimes increased by 8% from 12,487 to 13,547. The recording of these crimes is at the highest level seen since 1971, the first year for which comparable groups are available.
• Crimes of dishonesty remained almost unchanged, increasing by less than 1% from 114,474 to 114,506. The recording of these crimes is at the third lowest level seen since 1971.
• Fire-raising, vandalism etc. decreased by 6% from 51,322 to 47,997. The recording of these crimes is at the lowest level seen since 1976.
• Other crimes increased by 6% from 58,970 to 62,422. Most of these crimes relate to Drug possession, Crimes against public justice or Handling offensive weapons.

Offences recorded by the police in Scotland decreased by 6% from 264,027 to 247,791.

• Miscellaneous offences decreased by 5%, from 137,012 to 130,686.
• Motor vehicle offences decreased by 8% from 127,015 to 117,105.

Key Points from Recorded Crime in Scotland (cont.)

An Additional Analysis of Fraud

This bulletin also includes a topical analysis of police recorded Fraud, whereby a random sample of 500 crime records from 2018-19 were reviewed.

Key Points from research into Fraud:

• Police recorded crimes of Fraud cover a wide range of actions by the perpetrator. The most common types include Fraudulent use of a bank card, Failure to pay for products or services, Fraudulent selling and Phishing-type frauds. An estimated 28% of cases were cyber enabled (i.e. the internet was used as a means to commit the crime).

• The average amount defrauded for each crime of Fraud was £150. This was higher for cyber enabled Frauds (£490) than for those that weren't (£80).

• Victims were more likely to be male (56%), and had an average of age of 48 years old. Victims of Phishing-type frauds tended to be older, with an average age of 60 years old.

Official Statistics on Clear up rates

In addition to the National Statistics on police recorded crimes and offences, this bulletin also presents Official Statistics on crimes and offences cleared up by the police in 2018-19.

Clear up rates measure the percentage of recorded crimes that have been cleared up. For further information on the statistical designation of this data and a definition of clear up rates, please refer to Chapter 4.

Between 2017-18 and 2018-19 the clear up rate increased by 1.5 percentage points from 49.5% to 51.0%.

Other crimes (89.0%), Non-sexual crimes of violence (73.3%) and Sexual crime (58.1%) had higher clear up rates in 2018-19 than Crimes of dishonesty (38.3%) and Fire-raising, vandalism etc. (25.9%).