Recorded Crimes And Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 2010-11

2. Main Points

• Scottish police forces recorded 643 offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been involved in 2010-11, a decrease of 24% from the number recorded in 2009-10 (843). This is the lowest reported total for the 10 year period covered by this bulletin ( Table 1).
• The number of attempted murders involving a firearm increased by 18%, rising from 11 offences in 2009-10 to 13 in 2010-11. The number of serious assaults involving a firearm decreased by 37% between 2009-10 and 2010-11, reducing from 19 offences to 12 ( Table 1).
• A total of 39 vandalism offences involving the alleged use of a firearm were recorded in 2010-11, falling by 59% from 2009-10. The number of minor assaults involving a firearm decreased by 33%, from 164 in 2009-10 to 110 in 2010-11 ( Table 1).
• The number of robberies involving the use of a firearm decreased from 91 in 2009-10 to 87 in 2010-11, with the number of offences of reckless conduct with a firearm falling by 31% between 2009-10 and 2010-11 ( Table 1).
• The use of firearms in criminal activity continued to constitute only a small proportion of all offences recorded by the police in 2010-11 (see Annex 5.4.3); 2.2% of homicides (2 offences), 2.3% of attempted murders (13 offences) and 3.4% of robberies (87 offences). Less than 0.5% of all serious assault, vandalism and minor assault offences involved the alleged use of a firearm ( Table 2).
• Air weapons accounted for 36% (233) of all offences involving the alleged involvement of a firearm in 2010-11, compared to 51% (427) in 2009-10 ( Table 3).
• The number of offences in which a firearm was discharged and caused fatal or non-fatal injury decreased by 28% from 154 in 2009-10 to 111 in 2010-11 ( Table 5).
• Of the 111 main victims who were either fatally or non-fatally injured during an offence in which a firearm was discharged in 2010-11, 81 were male (73%) and 29 were female (26%). There was 1 reported offence involving the shooting of a police officer causing fatal or non-fatal injury. Of these victims, 39 were aged between 11-15 years (35%) and 19 were aged 10 years or under (17%) ( Table 10).
• In 2010-11, 67% of all offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been involved were cleared-up, an increase from 61% in 2009-10 and the highest clear-up rate recorded in the 10 year period covered by this bulletin ( Table 11).
• In 2010-11, the main accused was aged 15 years or under in 21% of cleared up offences involving the use of a firearm (91 out of 434 offences). A further 21% (92 offences) of cleared up cases were committed by an accused aged 16-20 years ( Table 12).
• Strathclyde police force area, which contained 43% of the estimated population of Scotland in 2010 (see Annex 5.4.2), accounted for 56% (359) of all offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been involved in 2010-11 ( Table 13).