Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-2022

Miscellaneous Offences

As noted above, the Miscellaneous offences group in this year’s bulletin has been widely impacted by the introduction of the new crime grouping structure. Both Common assault and Stalking have been transferred to the Non-sexual crimes of violence group, and as such no longer contribute to the total for Miscellaneous offences. The remaining offence types within the Miscellaneous offences group have been split into two groups: Antisocial offences (discussed in the previous chapter) and Miscellaneous offences. These changes have been back-revised within the statistics to maintain time series analysis.

Another smaller change to the Miscellaneous offences group is the transfer of offences relating to the (mis)use of bicycles from this group to the Road traffic offences group, discussed in the next chapter.

Miscellaneous offences accounted for 7% of all offences recorded in Scotland in 2021-22. Between 2020-21 and 2021-22, the number of Miscellaneous offences recorded by the police decreased by 5% from 13,580 to 12,951. There was a decrease of 7% since 2012-13.

Due to these changes, the new Miscellaneous offences group now accounts for a much smaller proportion of total recorded offences.

The national rate of recorded Miscellaneous offences decreased slightly from 25 per 10,000 population in 2020-21 to 24 per 10,000 population in 2021-22.

The Miscellaneous offences group includes the following categories:

• Miscellaneous Offences
  • Community and public order offences
  • Environmental offences
  • Licensing offences
  • Wildlife offences
  • Other miscellaneous offences

In 2021-22, of all Miscellaneous offences:

• Community and public order offences were the largest category, accounting for 71%
• Wildlife offences accounted for 12%
• Other miscellaneous offences accounted for 7%
• Licensing offences accounted for 6%
• Environmental offences accounted for 4%

In 2021-22, Community and public order offences accounted for the majority of miscellaneous offences, these are discussed in more detail below.

For further information on the other Miscellaneous offences categories please refer to the 'Supporting documents' Excel workbook for this bulletin. This includes data on the number of offences recorded in each category (Table 2) and rates per 10,000 population (Table 4). 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.

Community and public order offences

The Community and public order offences category includes a wide range of offences. The main ones are General post office/telecommunications offences (which account for the clear majority of the category, at 86%), Computer Misuse Act 1990 – unauthorised access only (5%), and False or hoax calls to emergency services (5%).

Over the ten year period from 2012-13 to 2021-22, the number of offences recorded in the Community and public order offences category has increased by 10%. However, there was a 2% decrease in the most recent year, from 9,397 in 2020-21 to 9,224 in 2021-22.