Coronavirus (COVID-19): Justice Analytical Services Data Report - December 2020

Recorded Crime in Scotland

The recorded crime figures presented below exclude crimes recorded under the coronavirus legislation.

December 2020

The number of crimes recorded in 2020 has returned to trending below 2019 levels

The number of crimes reco rded in December 2020 was 5% lower than in December 2019, and the number of offences was 11% lower than in December 2019.

Since last year, most crime and offence groups have seen a reduction while one group is at a higher level.

Other crimes were 4% higher (or 188 crimes). This increase was driven by rises in Crimes against public justice (up 12%, or 200 crimes).

April to December 2020

In December 2020, crime returned to below 2019 levels after seeing an increase in November.

When looking across April to December 2020*, 176,562 crimes were recorded. This was 6% lower than April to December last year (187,513 crimes recorded).

When comparing to previous months, crime in 2020 generally remained below 2019 levels, with the exception of December.

*The recorded crime figures presented here exclude crimes recorded under the new coronavirus legislation.

The biggest drivers of the reduction across April to December were Shoplifting, Other theft and Vandalism etc.

The biggest drivers of the 6% reduction over April to December (by volume) were: The biggest increases of this period were in:

Shoplifting ↓ 32% (or 7,590 crimes)

Other theft ↓ 18% (or 5,753 crimes)

Vandalism ↓ etc. 11% (or 3,830 crimes)

The biggest increases of this period were in:

Fraud ↑ 64% (or 5,028 crimes)

Crimes against public justice ↑ 32% (or 4,648 crimes)

The Changes in levels of recorded fraud section in the latest bulletin provides further background on what may be contributing to the above increase.

Further Information:

The data in this section comes from the monthly Official Statistics on crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information, please see Recorded Crime in Scotland: December 2020.

Coronavirus legislation intervention activity

This information is drawn from Police Scotland's 'Coronavirus Interventions' application, which relies on manual input from Police Officers. Due to this manual input, these figures should be viewed as indicative only.

This system currently provides the broadest picture of the differing levels of co-operation experienced by Police across Scotland.

The use of interventions fell through December and remains lower than April to June levels

Total use of interventions has decreased by 10% (or 888 interventions) since the previous month. However, there was a slight rise at the end of the month.

A large spike in interventions was seen on 25^th June, following a large scale disturbance in Kelvingrove Park.

COVID-19 Intervention Activity in December

In December, most interventions made were dispersals. This remains consistent with previous months.

Of the remaining 21% of interventions:

• 108 were dispersed using reasonable force
• 1,100 were issued a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN)
• 64 were arrested

Further Information:

A full breakdown of interventions is available from Police Scotland:

https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/covid-19-police-scotland-response/enforcement-and-response-data/

Police Recorded Domestic Abuse Incidents

The number of Domestic Abuse incidents recorded in December 2020 was below the level seen in 2019.

These updates (including the proportion with a crime or offence) will be reflected in future editions of the Official Statistics on Domestic Abuse in Scotland. The next edition will cover the 2019-20 reporting year.

Looking cumulatively across April to December 2020, incidents were 4% higher than the equivalent period in 2019.

In December 2020:

5,199 Domestic incidents recorded ↓ Down 8% since last year (5,655 incidents)

In April to December 2020:

49,353 Domestic incidents recorded ↑ Up 4% since equivalent period last year (47,363 incidents)

The proportion of April to December 2020 incidents that include the recording of at least one crime or offence was 39.0%. Police Scotland's Management Information Report suggests an equivalent figure of 43.9% for 2019-20.

In addition to the above, separate figures on crimes recorded under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 are available from the Recorded Crime in Scotland monthly Official Statistics. There were 1,167 such crimes recorded by the police in April to December 2020, compared to 1,300 during the equivalent period in 2019 (down 10%).

Police Recorded Domestic Abuse Incidents per 10,000 population

Across Scotland as a whole, the police recorded 90 domestic abuse incidents per 10,000 population during April to December 2020.

The local authorities with the highest rates were Dundee City (134), West Dunbartonshire (120), Clackmannanshire (117), West Lothian (113), and North Lanarkshire (112).

Further Information:

The data in this section comes from the monthly Official Statistics on crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information, please see Recorded Crime in Scotland: December 2020.