Domestic abuse: statistics recorded by the police in Scotland - 2010/11 and 2011/12

2. Main points

• The crime /offence statistics reported in this bulletin refer to the most serious crime/offence associated with each incident of domestic abuse. The most common crime or offence in 2011-12 was common assault, at 44% (14,154) of all incidents where a crime or offence was recorded. Threatening or abusive behaviour was the second most common crime or offence, accounting for 17% (5,453) of incidents where a crime or offence was recorded (table 2 and note 4.7).

• The overall number of domestic abuse incidents recorded by the police in Scotland in 2011-12 was 1,139 per 100,000 population (table 3b). This compared to 1,067 per 100,000 in 2010-11 (table 3a).
• Incidents with a female victim and a male perpetrator represented 81% (46,439) of all domestic abuse incidents in 2011-12 where this information was recorded, the same as in 2010-11. For the ten year period covered by the bulletin, this percentage has gradually decreased from 89% in 2002-03. The percentage of domestic abuse incidents with a male victim and female perpetrator has steadily increased from 9% in 2002-03 to stand at 17% in 2011-12 (table 7).
• For incidents where information regarding repeat victimisation of domestic abuse was available in 2011-12, 62% (33,353) involved victims who had previously experienced domestic abuse, compared to 55% (28,317) in 2010-11 (table 9).
• When looking at the number of incidents per 100,000 population in 2011-12, females are most at risk of becoming victims of domestic abuse when aged between 22 and 25 years and males when aged between 31 and 35 years (table 11b).
• In 2011-12, incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police involving co-habitees or partners accounted for 42% of all incidents where the relationship and gender was recorded, with more cases related to partners (23%) than co-habitees (19%). Partners refer to couples who do not live together. Incidents involving spouses accounted for a further 13% (table 16b).
• Since 2002-03, the percentage of incidents involving spouses, co-habitees and partners has decreased from 68% to 55% in 2011-12. This has been driven by a decrease in the percentage of incidents involving spouses over this period, from 24% in 2002-03 to 13% in 2011-12. In 44% of cases in 2011-12 where the relationship was known, the victim and perpetrator were ex-partners or ex-spouses, this has been steadily increasing from 31% in 2002-03 (table 17).
• In 2011-12, 42% of incidents of domestic abuse were referred to the procurator fiscal (24,963). This percentage has remained constant since 2009-10. Of the incidents where a crime/offence was recorded, 77% were referred to the procurator fiscal in 2011-12, an increase of 5 percentage points compared to 2010-11 (72%) (table 2).