Domestic abuse: statistics recorded by the police in Scotland - 2012-13

1. Introduction

1.1 This bulletin presents statistics on domestic abuse, based on details of incidents supplied by the eight Scottish police forces in 2012-13. It forms part of the Scottish Government series of statistical bulletins on the criminal justice system. The figures are used to inform policy and, in conjunction with the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (see note 4.12), are used to measure the extent and nature of domestic abuse in Scotland.

1.2 There were 60,080 incidents of domestic abuse recorded in 2012-13, compared to 59,847 incidents recorded in 2011-12, an increase of less than half of 1% and in line with the generally increasing trend over the ten year period covered by this bulletin. Half of all incidents recorded in 2012-13 (30,259) led to the recording of a crime or offence, down from 54% (32,369) in 2011-12 (table 2 and chart 1).

Chart 1 Incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police: crimes and offences and behaviour not amounting to a crime or offence, Scotland, 2003-04 to 2012-13.