Recorded crime in Scotland 2017-2018

Recorded Crime In Scotland, 2017-18

This bulletin presents National Statistics on crimes and offences recorded by the police in 2017-18. Statistics on crimes and offences recorded by the police provide a measure of the volume of criminal activity with which the police are faced. Crimes recorded by the police do not reveal the incidence of all crime committed since not all crimes are reported to the police. For a definition of crimes recorded, refer to Annex 1.

A procedural change was made to the recording of crime in 2017-18. Crimes of handling an offensive weapon are now included in these statistics for all cases where the weapon was used in a public place to commit a crime or offence against another person. This change has resulted in an additional 4,163 crimes of handling an offensive weapon being recorded in 2017-18. 

Prior to 2017-18, where a weapon was used in a public place to commit another crime or offence against a person, the specific crime of handling an offensive weapon was treated as an aggravation of that crime or offence (for example a weapon aggravated assault). As such it was not included in the recorded crime statistics. Given this, we have advised users throughout this bulletin where some caution should be exercised when making comparisons between 2017-18 and earlier years.