Domestic abuse: statistics recorded by the police in Scotland - 2013/14 and 2014/15

3. Main Findings: Incidents of Domestic Abuse in Scotland

Incidents of Domestic Abuse

Incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland increased from 58,439 in 2013-14 to 59,882 in 2014-15, an increase of 2.5%.

Over the past four years, the number of incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police has remained around the 60,000 mark. This follows large rises in recorded incidents between 1999-00 and 2011-12 (Chart 1 & Table 1).

In 2014-15, 54% (32,569) of incidents of domestic abuse incidents led to the recording of at least one crime or offence. The proportion in 2013-14 was also 54% (31,769) (Table 1). Over the past 10 years, this percentage has fluctuated between 49% and 62%, with no obvious trend.

Chart 1: Incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police, 2005-06 to 2014-15

* Chart has been displayed with gaps in the time series to highlight the changes in data collection. See section 2 for more details.

Local Authority Analysis

Across Scotland, just over a third of local authorities (12 out of 32) recorded a decrease in the number of incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police between 2013-14 and 2014-15. Most local authorities ranged from between decreases of 10% and increases of 17%. All local authorities recorded an increase in incidents of domestic abuse from ten years ago (Table 2).

In 2014-15, Dumfries & Galloway (67%) and Aberdeenshire (65%) had the highest percentage of incidents of domestic abuse recorded that resulted in at least one crime or offence being committed. This is above the Scottish average of 54%. There are 17 local authorities that have a percentage below the Scottish average, ranging from 46% to 54% (Chart 2 & Table 3).

Incidents of Domestic Abuse per 100,000 Population

Taking the population of Scotland as at mid-year 2014, there were 1,120 recorded incidents of domestic abuse per 100,000 population in 2014-15. At a local authority level, Dundee City (1,703) and Glasgow City (1,497) recorded the highest incident rates per 100,000 population. Shetland Islands (461), Orkney Islands (528) and Eilean Siar (532) recorded the lowest rates per 100,000 population (Chart 3 & Table 4).

In general, the more densely populated local authorities such as the city authorities are above the Scottish rate. The more rural local authorities like the islands and the far north and south of Scotland are below the Scottish average.

Chart 2: Percentage of incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police that resulted in at least one crime or offence being recorded, by local authority, 2014-15

Chart 3: Incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police per 100,000 population1, by local authority, 2014-15

1. Population estimates are at mid-year 2014 published by the National Records of Scotland (http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/population/population-estimates/mid-year-population-estimates)

Victim & Perpetrator Analysis

As highlighted in section 2.7, 17% of incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland in 2014-15, were missing information on the victim's and/or the perpetrator's gender. As such, the following section only includes analysis on the incidents where gender was available.

In 2014-15, females make up the majority (80%) of the victims in incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police where the gender of the victim is known. This percentage increases to 83% if you only look at incidents that resulted in the recording of at least one crime or offence (Table 5).

Incidents with a female victim and a male perpetrator represented 79% of all incidents of domestic abuse in 2014-15 where gender information was recorded. Over the last ten years, this percentage share has fallen from 87%. The proportion of incidents with a male victim and female perpetrator (where gender was recorded) has increased from 11% in 2005-06 to 18% in 2014-15 (Chart 4 & Table 6).

Chart 4: Gender of victim and perpetrator, where known, 2005-06 to 2014-15

* Chart has been displayed with gaps in the time series to highlight the changes in data collection. See section 2 for more details.

* Chart only displays incidents where gender of victim and perpetrator is known. See section 2.7 for more details of missing data.

In 2014-15, the 26-30 year old age group had the highest rate per 100,000 population for both victims (2,615 incidents recorded per 100,000 population) and perpetrators (2,766 incidents recorded per 100,000 population) (Tables 7B & Table 8B)

In 2014-15, female victims aged 26 to 30 had the highest rate (4,253) of incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police per 100,000 population. Among male victims, the highest rate of incidents of domestic abuse recorded per 100,000 population in 2014-15, was for those aged, 31 to 35 years, where the rate was 1,014 incidents recorded per 100,000 population (Chart 5 & Table 7B).

For perpetrators in 2014-15, the highest rate of incidents of domestic abuse per 100,000 population among female perpetrators was by those aged 26 to 30 years (997 incidents recorded per 100,000 population). Among male perpetrators, the highest rate of incidents of domestic abuse per 100,000 population in 2014-15 was by those aged 26 to 30 years (4,582 incidents) (Chart 5 & Table 8B).

Chart 5: Gender of victim and perpetrator, where known, 2014-15

* Data for 2014-15 had a number of incidents with missing age and gender, see section 2.7 for more detail.

Day/Month of Occurrence

The following section is based on the date the incident of domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland occurred, rather than when it was reported.

Incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland are more likely to occur at the weekend with 37% of incidents in 2014-15 occurring on a Saturday or a Sunday. The remaining 63% is spread fairly evenly from Monday to Friday. This pattern has been consistent over the past 10 years (Chart 6 & Table 10).

Chart 6: Incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police, by day of the week incident occurred, 2014-15

In 2014-15, when looking at the month that incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police occurred, there is no clear strong pattern. Incidents are reasonably spread out across the year (Table 11).