Domestic abuse: statistics recorded by the police in Scotland, 2023 to 2024

Introduction

This statistical bulletin provides information on domestic abuse incidents recorded by the police in 2023-24 (from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024).

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

‘Any form of physical, verbal, sexual, psychological or financial abuse which might amount to criminal conduct and which takes place within the context of a relationship. The relationship will be between partners (married, cohabiting, civil partnership or otherwise) or ex-partners. The abuse can be committed in the home or elsewhere including online’.

Police Scotland is responsible for operational policing in Scotland and is held to account by the Scottish Police Authority. The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 changed the policing landscape in Scotland, replacing the previous eight police forces, the Scottish Police Services Authority and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency from 1 April 2013.

The creation of Police Scotland altered the way in which domestic abuse data was collected. Prior to 1 April 2013, each legacy force had a bespoke system to collect the data required. Between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014 a new system – iVPD (interim Vulnerable Persons Database) was rolled out to the then 14 police divisions in Scotland. From 1 April 2014 onwards, all domestic abuse data has been collected through the iVPD.

Due to the changes in data collection, figures throughout the bulletin are presented with clear breaks in the time series between 2013-14 and 2014-15. As such, some caution should be exercised in interpreting the statistics on the number of incidents recorded across years.

The data in this bulletin covers the 13 police divisions in Scotland (across all 32 local authorities). Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire & Moray police divisions merged together to form the North East police division in January 2016.

Information on crimes and offences recorded as part of a domestic abuse incident has been split into the eight crime and offence groupings used by the Recorded Crime Accredited Official Statistics. Further breakdowns of crime and offence groupings are also shown where relevant. Section 5.3 in Annex 1 provides definitions of ‘crime’ and ‘offence’.

This annual ‘Domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland’ Official Statistics bulletin forms part of a series of bulletins on the criminal justice system, which can be found on the Scottish Government website.

All tables referred to below are available in the 'Supporting Documents' Excel workbook for this bulletin. The workbook includes an ‘Introduction’ sheet, with information on how to navigate the tables, alongside a ‘Notes’ sheet, with relevant details to assist users when reading and interpreting results.

What are these statistics used for?

These statistics inform the Scottish Government’s Vision for Justice in Scotland. This was published in February 2022 and sets out a transformative vision for the whole justice system in Scotland. The 2022 strategy outlines how the Scottish Government will transform the justice system, through recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

These statistics are also used by a range of stakeholders to monitor trends, for policy research and development, and for social research purposes. Further information on users and uses of the statistics is available in Section 4.2 of this bulletin.

How does the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 impact these statistics?

This bulletin covers the fifth year of operation for the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. The Act, which came into force on 1 April 2019, created a new offence for circumstances where a person engages in a course of behaviour which is abusive towards their partner or ex-partner. A course of behaviour involves behaviour on at least two occasions.

The Act did not alter the way in which statistics on the volume of domestic abuse incidents reported to the police are collected and produced. As such its impact on this data is likely to be limited, albeit the associated awareness campaign to raise public understanding of domestic abuse, and to encourage victims to seek support may have had a role in the increased number of incidents seen during the years following the introduction of the act. Police Recorded Crime Accredited Official Statistics remain the primary source for users interested in the number of crimes recorded under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

The Act had some impact on statistics showing the volume and type of crimes and offences recorded as part of a domestic abuse incident. Prior to the 1 April 2019, any criminal act which formed part of a domestic abuse incident (for example a common assault) was included within the statistics under the relevant crime or offence. From the 1 April 2019, where there is evidence that an incident forms part of a course of behaviour, new crimes of Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 will also be recorded (split into whether they had a male or female victim).

In general, existing common law and statutory offences will continue to be recorded where appropriate, in addition to the new crimes. There are some exceptions, including the crimes and offences of Threatening and abusive behaviour and Stalking. These should no longer be recorded when occurring as part of a course of behaviour for domestic abuse, with the new crime of Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 taking precedence.

The number of Threatening and abusive behaviour offences recorded as part of a domestic abuse incident have decreased since 2018-19, from 8,577 in 2018-19 to 6,369 in 2023-24. Over the same time the number of Stalking crimes (which sit within the Other crimes of non-sexual violence category) fell from 922 to 509. However, the change in Threatening and abusive behaviour offences may in part reflect the continuation of a longer-term trend, and in general it is difficult to quantify the extent to which the new offence has affected the recording of these cases. This will likely depend on the types of abusive behaviour that occur during a course of behaviour where the new offence may apply, some of which (such as psychological abuse) may not have included the recording of a crime or offence prior to the Act being passed.

Furthermore, in a limited number of cases when the incident occurred before 1 April 2019, offences that can now amount to a crime under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 (e.g. Threatening and abusive behaviour and Stalking) could not yet be considered as part of the Act and would have to be recorded separately. As time progresses since the introduction of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, these instances are likely to reduce.

Given this, some caution should be exercised when interpreting the statistics on the number of Threatening and abusive behaviour and Stalking crimes recorded before and after 1 April 2019 – due to the changes in the legislative and operational landscape used by police to record these crimes.

This caution should also apply to the data presented on the percentage of domestic abuse incidents that include the recording of at least one crime or offence, albeit this remained relatively stable in the year following passage of the Act. Where relevant, further information on these changes is provided throughout this bulletin.

What impact did the COVID-19 pandemic have?

The statistics in this bulletin cover incidents of domestic abuse which were recorded between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024. The nationwide lockdowns and other measures put in place to limit social contact during the pandemic would have impacted domestic abuse largely in 2020-21, with 2021-22 also likely to be affected, albeit to a lesser extent. The final legal restrictions were lifted in April 2022, suggesting a much more limited impact in 2022-23.

When reviewing the data in this bulletin for the period that covered the pandemic, some caution is advised before necessarily attributing all changes to COVID-19. Whilst levels of recorded domestic abuse grew in 2020-21, they had also increased over the four preceding years, when the pandemic wasn’t a factor.

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are official statistics. Official statistics are statistics that are produced by crown bodies, those acting on behalf of crown bodies, or those specified in statutory orders, as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.