Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 2011-12

2. Main Points

• Scottish police forces recorded 514 offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been involved in 2011-12, a decrease of 21% from the 647 recorded in 2010-11. This is the lowest recorded total for the ten year period covered by this bulletin (Table 1).
• The number of Attempted murders involving a firearm decreased by 15%, falling from 13 offences in 2010-11 to 11 in 2011-12. The number of Serious assaults involving a firearm decreased by 50% between 2010-11 and 2011-12, reducing from 12 offences to six (Table 1).
• A total of 26 Vandalism offences involving the alleged use of a firearm were recorded in 2011-12, falling by 33% from the 39 offences recorded in 2010-11. The number of Common assaults involving a firearm decreased by 12%, from 110 in 2010-11 to 97 in 2011-12 (Table 1).
• The number of Robberies involving the use of a firearm decreased from 88 in 2010-11 to 70 in 2011-12, with the number of offences of Reckless conduct with a firearm falling by 13% between 2010-11 and 2011-12 (Table 1).
• The use of firearms in criminal activity continued to constitute only a small proportion of all offences recorded by the police in 2011-12; 5.4% of Homicides (five offences), 2.2% of Attempted murders (11 offences) and 3.1% of Robberies (70 offences). Less than 0.5% of all Serious assaults, Vandalism offences and Common assaults involved the alleged use of a firearm (Table 2).
• Air weapons accounted for 38% (195) of all offences involving the alleged involvement of a firearm in 2011-12, compared to 36% (234) in 2010-11 (Table 3).
• The number of offences in which a firearm was discharged and caused fatal or non-fatal injury decreased by 14% from 111 in 2010-11 to 95 in 2011-12 (Table 5).
• Of the 95 main victims who were either fatally or non-fatally injured during an offence in which a firearm was discharged in 2011-12, 77 were male (81%) and 18 were female (19%). There were no reported offences involving the shooting of a police officer causing fatal or non-fatal injury. Of these victims, 30 were aged between 11 and 15 years (32%) and 12 were aged 10 years and under (13%) (Table 10).
• In 2011-12, 70% of all offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been involved were cleared up, an increase of two percentage points from the 68% in 2010-11. This is the highest clear up rate recorded in the ten year period covered by this bulletin (Table 11).
• In 2011-12, the main accused was aged 15 years and under in 16% (58 offences) of the 360 cleared up offences involving the use of a firearm. A further 24% (86 offences) of cleared up offences were committed by an accused aged 16 to 20 years (Table 12).
• Strathclyde Police force area, which contained 42% of the estimated population of Scotland in 2011, accounted for 49% (250) of all offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been involved in 2011-12 (Table 13).
• In 2011-12, the highest proportion of Vandalism offences (46%) and 'Other crimes and offences' (45%) involving the alleged use of a firearm were recorded within the Lothian and Borders Police force area (Table 13).