Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2023-24

Antisocial Offences

Antisocial offences accounted for just over a quarter (27%) of all offences recorded in Scotland in 2023-24. Between 2014-15 and 2023-24, the number of Antisocial offences recorded by the police decreased by 57%, this includes a 5% decrease since 2022-23 from 50,094 to 47,808 in 2023-24.

The national rate of recorded Antisocial offences decreased from 92 per 10,000 population in 2022-23 to 88 per 10,000 population in 2023-24.

The Antisocial offences group includes the following categories:

• Threatening and abusive behaviour
• Racially aggravated conduct
• Drunkenness & other disorderly conduct
• Urinating etc.

In 2023-24 of all Antisocial offences:

• Threatening and abusive behaviour accounted for the clear majority, at 90%
• Drunkenness and other disorderly conduct accounted for 5%
• Racially aggravated conduct accounted for 3%
• Urinating etc. accounted for 2%

Threatening and abusive behaviour accounts for the clear majority of antisocial offences and is discussed in more detail below.

For further information on the other Antisocial 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.

Threatening and abusive behaviour

The Threatening and abusive behaviour category includes offences of Threatening or abusive behaviour (which account for the vast majority of the category, at 91%), Threatening and abusive behaviour of a retail worker (7%) and Breach of the peace offences (2%).

Over the ten year period from 2014-15 to 2023-24, the number of offences recorded in the Threatening and abusive behaviour category has decreased by 30%. This includes a 1% decrease in the most recent year, from 43,644 in 2022-23 to 43,085 in 2023-24.

Threatening and abusive behaviour of a retail worker is a subset of the Threatening and abusive behaviour category, which came into effect on the 24 August 2021. This was introduced by the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021. As such, the first statistics for 2021-22 only relate to a partial year. There were 1,130 offences recorded during this time. This increased to 2,106 in 2022-23 and then further increased to 2,922 in 2023-24. More information on this new legislation is provided in Annex 3.