Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2023-24

Police recorded crimes against retail workers in Scotland

This chapter presents findings of a study into police recorded crimes against retail workers in Scotland. This includes new details on the characteristics of these cases, based on a random sample of police recorded crimes for the year ending September 2022.

The information provided below relates to crimes against retail workers which have come to the attention of the police. It does not provide information on the characteristics of all crimes against retail workers, as not all of these crimes are reported to the police.

The Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 came into effect from 24 August 2021. The Act made it an offence for a person to assault, threaten or abuse another person who is a retail worker and who is engaged, at the time of offence, in retail work. Three new crimes codes were set up to record these cases, serious assault of a retail worker, common assault of a retail worker and threatening and abusive behaviour of a retail worker.

In the year ending September 2022, the police recorded 3,277 crimes against retail workers under the above Act. This included 15 crimes of Serious assault of a retail worker, 1,428 crimes of Common assault of a retail worker, and 1,834 crimes of Threatening and abusive behaviour of a retail worker.

Scottish Government statisticians reviewed a random sample of 515 crimes against retail workers from the year ending September 2022, representing 16% of all cases recorded that year. The sample was stratified by Police Scotland division to ensure the prevalence of crimes against retail workers across the 13 geographic areas covered by those divisions was reflected within the research. Information was recorded about the circumstances of each crime against a retail worker and the characteristics of the people involved. No personal or sensitive details were collected.

This research is based on a sample of police records (rather than all records), therefore the percentages (proportions) presented in this section are estimates. The true value may differ slightly from the findings presented below due to sampling error. As such users should treat the following analysis as a broad indication of the characteristics of crimes against retail workers, rather than as an exact measure. All figures are presented at the national level, as sample sizes are too small to provide robust estimates at geographies below this.

Geographic location of crimes against retail workers

In the year ending September 2022, the number of crimes recorded against retail workers per 10,000 of the population was highest in Dundee City, City of Edinburgh and Glasgow City local authority areas (14.6, 13.0 and 12.0 crimes per 10,000 population respectively). Orkney Islands, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Shetland Islands and Stirling had the lowest rates. No crimes against retail workers were recorded in Orkney Islands in the year ending September 2022.

Around 24% of the sampled crimes against retail workers occurred in one of Scotland’s Top 15% most deprived areas, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).

Type of retail establishment and timing of the crime

Around one-third (32%) of crimes against retail workers occurred over the weekend. The highest proportion of crimes during the week occurred on Fridays (17%) and the lowest proportion occurred on a Wednesday (11%).

When assessing the week as a whole, the highest proportion of crimes (34%) occurred in the afternoon between 12pm and 5pm, whilst the lowest proportion of crimes (15%) occurred in the morning between 6am and 12pm.

Looking at the type of retail establishment, the most common locus of crimes against retail workers was supermarkets/department stores (47%), followed by around one-in-five crimes (19%) occurring in hospitality settings - which include restaurants, takeaways, pubs, bars and nightclubs. A further 14% occurred in convenience stores.

Victim characteristics in crimes against retail workers

Where information was recorded, almost two thirds (64%) of victims were male and 36% were female.

Where the victim’s age was recorded, more than half (55%) of victims were aged between 25 and 44 at the time the incident occurred. The average (median) age of victims at the time of the crime was 35 years old. There were no victims under the age of 16 identified within the sample.

Where the victim’s ethnicity was recorded, almost two thirds (64%) of victims in the sample identified as “White Scottish” followed by 10% identifying as “Other White British”, 6% identifying as “Pakistani, Pakistani Scottish or Pakistani British” and 5% identifying as “Other Asian”. The remaining 16% identified with a range of other groups.

When compared with the ethnicity results from the 2022 Census for those aged 16 to 64, this analysis suggests that victims of crimes against retail workers are more ethnically diverse than average – with 26.3% identifying as groups other than ‘White Scottish’ and ‘Other White British’. The equivalent figure for all of Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64 was 15.2%^[6]. A further example of this can be seen for specific groups. Whilst only 1% of those aged 16 to 64 in Scotland identified as “Pakistani, Pakistani Scottish or Pakistani British” at the 2022 census, as noted above they made up 5% of victims of crimes against retail workers.

Most victims were recorded as having a job category of “Staff/Employees” (44%), closely followed by those having a job category of “Management/Supervisor” (31%). Around 16% of crimes recorded in the sample involved the victim working in the job category “Security”.

Perpetrator characteristics in crimes against retail workers

Within the sample of 515 cases, around 71% of crimes had an identified perpetrator(s). The vast majority of these (95%) involved a single perpetrator.

In the crimes where a single perpetrator was identified and information was available, almost 4 out of 5 (78%) of perpetrators were male.

Similar to the victims and where age was recorded, the majority (57%) of single perpetrators were aged between 25 and 44 at the time the incident occurred. The average age of a single perpetrator at the time the crime occurred was 33 years old. When further assessing the age of the perpetrators, around one-in-ten (11%) were under the age of 16 at the time of the incident.

Looking at the ethnicity of identified single perpetrators where recorded, over three-quarters (78%) identified as “White Scottish”, followed by 11% identifying as “Other White British”. The remaining 12% identified with a range of other groups. This distribution is not significantly different from that seen for the whole population within the 2022 Census.

Where the residence of an identified single perpetrator was recorded in the sample, 41% resided in one of Scotland’s Top 15% most deprived areas according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).

Context of the crimes against retail workers

Circumstances surrounding the crimes were noted when the sample data was collected. Upon review, common themes were established and categories were created to help describe the circumstances leading up to the crime. These categories were:

• “perpetrator(s) known to premises/asked to leave premises”;
• “perpetrator(s) under the influence of substances”;
• “general anti-social behaviour”;
• “perpetrator(s) refused sale in premises” and;
• “perpetrator(s) confronted for shoplifting”

The majority of cases in the sample (91%) had noted circumstances falling into one or more of these categories.

Looking at each of the categories individually, regardless of whether a case fell into multiple categories (and hence the figures below will sum to more than the total):

• An estimated volume of 1,390 crimes (43% of cases) had circumstances involving perpetrator(s) being confronted for shoplifting;
• An estimated volume of 1,200 crimes (37% of cases) had circumstances involving general anti-social behaviour;
• An estimated volume of 1,090 crimes (33% of cases) had circumstances involving perpetrator(s) known to premises/asked to leave a premises. Some of this will include cases where those known for previous incidents, for example shoplifting or causing a disturbance in the past, are asked to leave before any further incidents may occur;
• An estimated volume of 440 crimes (14% of cases) had circumstances involving perpetrator(s) being refused a sale in a premises;
• An estimated volume of 440 crimes (13% of cases) had circumstances involving perpetrator(s) being under the influence of substances and;
• An estimated volume of 370 crimes (11% of cases) where the circumstances of the crime where unclear from the information recorded or didn’t fall into any of the above categories.