Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2022-23

Scotland’s Chief Statistician today released Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2022-23.

Between 2021-22 and 2022-23:

Crimes recorded by the police in Scotland increased by 1%, from 286,464 to 289,352. The recording of crime remains at one of the lowest levels seen since 1974.

Crimes recorded under Coronavirus related legislation  fell from 3,913 to zero. All other crimes collectively increased by 2%.

Non-sexual crimes of violence decreased by 1%, from 69,286 to 68,870. Common assault (also down 1%) makes up the clear majority (84%) of all non-sexual crimes of violence recorded in 2022-23.

Sexual crimes decreased by 3%, from 15,049 to 14,602. These crimes are now at the second highest level seen since 1971, the first year for which comparable groups are available.

Crimes of dishonesty increased by 11%, from 92,873 to 103,393. The recording of these crimes is at the third lowest level seen since 1971.

Damage and reckless behaviour crimes decreased by 3%, from 44,284 to 43,123. The recording of these crimes is at the second lowest level seen since 1976.

Crimes against society decreased by 3% from 61,059 to 59,364. Most of these crimes relate to crimes against public justice (39%) or drug possession (38%).

Offences recorded by the police in Scotland collectively decreased by 5%, from 180,913 to 172,207. This included a reduction in Antisocial offences (down 11%), Miscellaneous offences (down 1%) and Road traffic offences (down 2%).

Police recorded cyber-crime in Scotland

This bulletin also includes an estimate of how many cyber-crimes (i.e. crimes committed using the internet) were recorded in Scotland during 2022-23.

In 2022-23, an estimated 14,890 cyber-crimes were recorded by the police in Scotland. This is similar to the estimated volume  recorded for both 2020-21 and 2021-22 (14,860 and 14,280 respectively), but remains significantly above the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20 (with 7,710 cyber-crimes)

We estimate that cyber-crimes accounted for an estimated 26% of Sexual crimes in 2022-23, 8% of Crimes of dishonesty and 3% of Non-sexual crimes of violence.

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 2022-23.

In 2022-23 the clear up rate was 53.3%, down from 54.0% in 2021-22. Crimes against society (93.4%), Non-sexual crimes of violence (67.3%) and Sexual crime (53.4%) continued to have higher clear up rates in 2022-23 than Crimes of dishonesty (31.0%) and Damage and reckless behaviour (28.8%).

Background

1. The full statistical publication can be accessed at: http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781805259688

2. Contraventions of Scottish criminal law are divided for statistical purposes into crimes and offences. ‘Crime’ is generally used for the more serious criminal acts. The less serious termed ‘offences’, although the term ‘offence’ may also be used in relation to serious breaches of criminal law. The distinction is made only for statistical reporting purposes and the ‘seriousness’ of the offence is generally related to the maximum sentence that can be imposed.

3. Further information on Crime and Justice statistics within Scotland can be accessed at: Crime and justice statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

4. National and Official Statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of Official Statistics in Scotland can be accessed at: Statistics and research - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)