Recorded crime in Scotland 2017-2018

Key Points from Recorded Crime in Scotland

There were 244,504 crimes recorded by the police in Scotland in 2017-18. This is the second lowest level of recorded crime since 1974.

Between 2016-17 and 2017-18:

• Crimes recorded by the police in Scotland increased by 1% - excluding those additional crimes of handling an offensive weapon, which were only recorded from 2017-18 onwards.
• If the additional crimes of handling an offensive weapon are included, crimes recorded by the police increased by 2%. This is not a reliable measure given those crimes of handling an offensive weapon were not recorded prior to 2017-18. Non-sexual crimes of violence increased by 1% from 7,164 to 7,251. The recording of these crimes remains at a lower level than all years between 1975 and 2012-13. 
• Sexual crimes increased by 13% from 11,092 to 12,487. Following the enactment of The Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 on 3rd July 2017, part of this increase includes 421 new crimes of disclosing or threatening to disclose an intimate image. The recording of sexual crime is at the highest level seen since 1971, the first year for which comparable crime groups are available. 
• Crimes of dishonesty increased by 1% from 113,205 to 114,474. The recording of these crimes is at the second lowest level seen since 1971. 
• Fire-raising, vandalism etc. decreased by 2% from 52,514 to 51,322. The recording of these crimes is at the lowest level seen since 1978.
• Other crimes recorded by the police remained at similar levels to 2016-17 – excluding those additional crimes of handling an offensive weapon, which were only recorded from 2017-18 onwards.
• If the additional crimes of handling an offensive weapon are included, Other crimes recorded by the police increased by 7% to 58,970. This is not a reliable measure given those crimes of handling an offensive weapon were not recorded prior to 2017-18.

Offences recorded by the police in Scotland decreased by 9% from 288,691 to 264,027.

• Miscellaneous offences decreased by 9% from 150,523 to 137,012.
• Motor vehicle offences decreased by 8% from 138,168 to 127,015.

Key Points from Recorded Crime in Scotland (cont.)

Official Statistics on Clear up rates

In addition to the National Statistics on police recorded crimes and offences, this

bulletin also presents Official Statistics on crimes and offences cleared up by the

police in 2017-18.

Clear up rates measure the percentage of recorded crimes that have been cleared up. For further information on the statistical designation of this data and a definition of clear up rates, please refer to Chapter 4.

The clear up rate for all recorded crime in 2017-18 was 49.5%.

• Clear up rates in 2017-18 were higher for some types of crime than others. Other crimes (89.6%), non-sexual crimes of violence (76.1%) and sexual crime (60.0%) had higher clear up rates than crimes of dishonesty (36.9%) and fire-raising, vandalism etc. (25.2%).

Between 2016-17 and 2017-18:

• The clear up rate fell by 0.9 percentage points from 50.0% to 49.1% - excluding those additional crimes of handling an offensive weapon which were only recorded from 2017-18 onwards.
• If the additional crimes of handling an offensive weapon are included, the clear up rate fell by 0.5 percentage points from 50.0% to 49.5%. This is not a reliable measure of change between these two years given those crimes of handling an offensive weapon were not recorded prior to 2017-18.

Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2017-18