Domestic abuse: statistics recorded by the Police in Scotland - 2020/21

Footnotes

1. Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) have a shared definition of domestic abuse available on the Police Scotland website.

2. Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) have a shared definition of domestic abuse available on the Police Scotland website.

3. Section 5.2 in Annex 1 provides definitions of 'crime' and 'offence'.

4. Section 5.3 in Annex 1 provides a full list of crimes and offences groupings.

5. A course of behaviour involves behaviour on at least two occasions.

6. Police Scotland's Quarterly Management Information reports are available from the 'Our Performance' section of Police Scotland website.

7. Section 5.2 in Annex 1 provides definitions of 'crime' and 'offence'.

8. Current partner is defined here as spouse/civil partner, partner and co-habitee. Ex-partner is defined as ex-spouse/civil partner and ex-partner.

9. 'Unknown' relationship indicates that the iVPD does not have a record of the type/detail of the relationship between victim and accused. As these incidents are assessed by Police Scotland before entering the database, all records are for domestic abuse incidents by legal definition. Section 5.6 provides more information.

10. Each police division rolled out the iVPD at different times throughout 2013-14.

11. Proportion calculated excluding incidents where information on previous history on iVPD is fully or partially not recorded.

12. See Section 5.5 in Annex 2 for more information on the process of logging incidents.

13. The SCJS is completed face-to-face in the homes of respondents, with sections on more sensitive topics, including questions on partner abuse, completed by the respondent themselves using the interviewer's laptop or tablet.

14. SCJS results for 2016-17 and 2017-18 have been combined to carry out the analysis.

15. Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) have a shared definition of domestic abuse available on the Police Scotland website.

16. Further breakdowns for motor vehicle offences are not included in Table 2, as only a relatively small number of motor vehicle offences were recorded by the police as part of incidents of domestic abuse in 2020-21 (103).

17. STORM has been used across Scotland since February 2018.

18. Annex 2 provides information on Police Scotland's incident recording systems.

19. Incidents may result in the creation of one or more crime reports on the relevant crime management system. Different crime management systems are used Police Scotland to record and manage crime.

20. A course of behaviour involves behaviour on at least two occasions.