Homicide in Scotland 2023-24

Key Points

• In 2023-24, 57 victims of homicide were recorded, 10% (or five victims) more than the 52 victims recorded in 2022-23 (Table 1). This is the third lowest number of recorded homicide victims since comparable records began in 1976 (and lower than all years from that point to 2020-21 inclusive).
• Over the latest 10 year period from 2014-15 to 2023-24, the number of victims fell by 10% (or 6 victims) from 63 to 57 (Table 1).
• Over the latest 20 year period from 2004-05 to 2023-24, the number of homicide victims in Scotland fell by 58% (or 80 victims) from 137 to 57 (Table 1).
• The greatest reduction in homicide victims over the last 20 years has been amongst young people aged 16-24. In the five years between 2004-05 to 2008-09 there were 125 victims in this age range. This dropped to 29 across the latest five years between 2019-20 to 2023-24 (Table 5).
• Of the 57 victims recorded in 2023-24, 77% (44) were male and 23% (13) were female (Table 5).
• In 2023-24, 85 persons were accused of homicide, of which 81% (69) were male and 19% (16) were female (Table 6). For all the 57 homicide victims recorded in 2023-24, the associated case was solved.
• For each of the last 20 years, the most common method of killing was with a sharp instrument (Table 7). In 2023-24, a sharp instrument was the main method of killing for 49% (or 28) of homicide victims.
• For the latest year of 2023-24, the majority (64%) of male victims were killed by an acquaintance (28 of 44 male victims). Female victims were most likely to be killed by a partner or ex-partner (38%, or 5 of 13 female victims) (Table 8).
• Whilst most recorded incidents of homicide in these statistics have one victim and one accused, some incidents can have multiple victims and/or accused. There were 57 homicide incidents recorded in 2023-24, 12% (or six incidents) more than the 51 recorded in 2022-23 (Table 1).