In 2023/24 the crime rate in Scotland was *** crimes per 10,000 people, one of the lowest crime rates recorded in this time period. After peaking at ***** in 2004/05, the crime rate in Scotland has fallen significantly, reaching a low in the 2021/22 reporting year.

In 2023/24 there were 71,463 non-sexual violent crimes recorded by the police in Scotland. The number of violent crimes in Scotland has generally fallen throughout this period, from a peak of 92,266 in 2002/03, to a low of 61,913 in 2020/21.

Dundee City's crime rate of *** crimes per 10,000 people was the highest of any region of Scotland in 2023/24. The rate for the whole of Scotland was *** per 10,000 people, which appears to be driven by low crime in places such as the Orkney and Shetland Islands, with almost all Scottish cities reporting higher than average crime rates. In Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, the crime rate was *** crimes per 10,000 people, while in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, the crime rate was *** per 10,000 population. Comparisons with the rest of the UK When compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, Scotland has experienced a noticeable decline in its overall crime rate. In 2008/09 for example, Scotland's crime rate was higher than that of England and Wales, as well as Northern Ireland, the other two jurisdictions in the UK. In 2022/23, however, Scotland's crime rate was the lowest in the UK, with the crime rate in England and Wales rising noticeably during the same period. Scotland's homicide rate has also fallen, from being the highest in the UK in 2002/03, to the lowest as of 2022/23. Theft and fraud drive recent crime uptick There was a slight increase in the number of crimes recorded by the Scottish police in 2023/24, when compared with the previous year. Although many other types of crimes declined during this reporting year, the number of theft offences has increased, reaching ******* offences in 2023/24. Fraud crime has also increased significantly in recent years, with ****** offences in 2022/23, compared with just ***** in 2014/15. The recent uptick in fraud and theft offences is also reflected in the jurisdiction England and Wales.

In the 2023/24 reporting year, there were 50,558 crimes recorded in Glasgow City, the most of any local authority in Scotland. The Orkney Islands by comparison had just 521 crimes recorded in the same period.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) is a social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland. The survey is an important resource for both the government and public of Scotland. Respondents are selected at random from the Postal Address File and participation in the survey is entirely voluntary. The main aims of the SCJS are to:

• provide reliable statistics on people's experience of crime in Scotland, including services provided to victims of crime
• assess the varying risk of crime for different groups of people in the population
• examine trends in the level and nature of crime in Scotland over time
• collect information about people's experiences of, and attitudes on a range of crime and justice related issues

An important role of the SCJS is to provide an alternative and complementary measure of crime to police recorded crime statistics. For further details of the scope and methodology of the SCJS, please see documentation. Information about the survey and links to publications may be found on the Scottish Government's Scottish Crime and Justice Survey webpages.

Background and history of the SCJS
Previous surveys of victimisation in Scotland began with the Scottish components of the 1982 and 1988 sweeps of the British Crime Survey (BCS) (held at the Archive under SNs 4368 and 4599) The Scottish element of the 1988 BCS was also known as the Scottish Areas Crime Survey and coverage was limited in those early surveys to the areas south of the Caledonian Canal. From 2012, the BCS has been renamed the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (held under GN 33174).

The first independent Scotland-only crime survey was commissioned by the Scottish Office in 1993 under the title of the Scottish Crime Survey (SCS) and was followed by repeated sweeps in 1996 (both years held together under SN 3813), and again in 2000 (SN 4542) and 2003 (SN 5756). In 2004 the survey underwent both a name change, to the Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey (SCVS) (SN 5757), and a major methodological change, with a move away from in-home face-to-face interviewing to telephone interviewing. However, the 2006 SCVS (SN 5784) returned to face-to-face interviewing after it was shown that the robustness of the data produced by the 2004 telephone survey could not be substantiated. From 2008-2009, the series name was changed to the present title, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, and it moved to a repeated annual cross-sectional schedule based on financial year. From 2012-13 the SCJS moved from annual to biennial survey covering the financial year however, the 2014-15 survey was the last biennial survey and currently the SCJS is conducted on an annual basis. See the documentation for further details.

Special Licence data
From 2012-13 only the Main Questionnaire data are available under standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. The Victim Form and Self-Completion data are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard EUL. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, 2021-2022 contains data from the SCJS Main Questionnaire only and is based on 5,516 face-to-face interviews with adults (aged 16 or over) living in private households in Scotland. The Victim Form questionnaire dataset is not included in this study.

Documentation

Users should note that the User Guide document was written to accompany the 2008/09 study, but the depositor advises that it is the latest version available and should be included here.

In the 2023/24 reporting year there were 299,780 crimes recorded by the police in Scotland, with 111,054 of these crimes categorized as crimes of dishonesty, the most common crime type in this year.

This statistic shows the injuries sustained by victims of violent crime as a percentage of all violent crimes that involved injuries, as recorded by the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey in the fiscal year 2017/18. Minor bruising or black eyes were the most common injury at ** percent, followed by scratches or minor cuts and severe bruising. On the other end, * percent of victims got severe concussion or lost consciousness.

Combined Violent and Property Crime Offenses Known to Law Enforcement in Scotland County, NC was 342.00000 Known Incidents in January of 2021, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Combined Violent and Property Crime Offenses Known to Law Enforcement in Scotland County, NC reached a record high of 809.00000 in January of 2008 and a record low of 57.00000 in January of 2016. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Combined Violent and Property Crime Offenses Known to Law Enforcement in Scotland County, NC - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) is a social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland. The survey is an important resource for both the government and public of Scotland. Respondents are selected at random from the Postal Address File and participation in the survey is entirely voluntary. The main aims of the SCJS are to:

• provide reliable statistics on people's experience of crime in Scotland, including services provided to victims of crime
• assess the varying risk of crime for different groups of people in the population
• examine trends in the level and nature of crime in Scotland over time
• collect information about people's experiences of, and attitudes on a range of crime and justice related issues

An important role of the SCJS is to provide an alternative and complementary measure of crime to police recorded crime statistics. For further details of the scope and methodology of the SCJS, please see documentation. Information about the survey and links to publications may be found on the Scottish Government's Scottish Crime and Justice Survey webpages.

Background and history of the SCJS
Previous surveys of victimisation in Scotland began with the Scottish components of the 1982 and 1988 sweeps of the British Crime Survey (BCS) (held at the Archive under SNs 4368 and 4599) The Scottish element of the 1988 BCS was also known as the Scottish Areas Crime Survey and coverage was limited in those early surveys to the areas south of the Caledonian Canal. From 2012, the BCS has been renamed the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (held under GN 33174).

The first independent Scotland-only crime survey was commissioned by the Scottish Office in 1993 under the title of the Scottish Crime Survey (SCS) and was followed by repeated sweeps in 1996 (both years held together under SN 3813), and again in 2000 (SN 4542) and 2003 (SN 5756). In 2004 the survey underwent both a name change, to the Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey (SCVS) (SN 5757), and a major methodological change, with a move away from in-home face-to-face interviewing to telephone interviewing. However, the 2006 SCVS (SN 5784) returned to face-to-face interviewing after it was shown that the robustness of the data produced by the 2004 telephone survey could not be substantiated. From 2008-2009, the series name was changed to the present title, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, and it moved to a repeated annual cross-sectional schedule based on financial year. From 2012-13 the SCJS moved from annual to biennial survey covering the financial year however, the 2014-15 survey was the last biennial survey and currently the SCJS is conducted on an annual basis. See the documentation for further details.

Special Licence data
From 2012-2013 only the Main Questionnaire data are available under standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. The Victim Form and Self-Completion data are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard EUL. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, 2018-2019: Special Licence Access, Victim Form Data study contains data from the Victim Form only. The Main Questionnaire data and all documentation for the SCJS 2018-2019 are available under SN 8795.

Main Topics:

The Victim form (repeated up to five times, based on information collected in the victim form screener section of the Main questionnaire) covers incident details, dates, experience of the criminal justice system and related issues (emotions, support and advice, perceptions of the incident, police contact, offender(s) prosecution, information and assistance, Procurator Fiscal, and attitudes towards offender prosecution and sentencing). The data is reveiwed by a team of specially trained Coders who assign and Offence Code to the incident. See documentation under SN 8795 for further details.

Combined Violent and Property Crime Offenses Known to Law Enforcement in Scotland County, MO was 22.00000 Known Incidents in January of 2018, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Combined Violent and Property Crime Offenses Known to Law Enforcement in Scotland County, MO reached a record high of 58.00000 in January of 2012 and a record low of 22.00000 in January of 2015. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Combined Violent and Property Crime Offenses Known to Law Enforcement in Scotland County, MO - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

The 694 data zones in Glasgow ranked in 2012, 2009, and 2006 for the crime domain in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). Each data zone also has a local ranking i.e. within Glasgow to ease comparison for that data zone over time and within the city. Intermediate Geographies and political geographies such as the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary Constituencies, multi-member wards are also included. Datazones nest directly into intermediate geographies and local authorities but do not fit exactly into higher geographies like multi-member wards, SIMD FAQ The Scottish Government describes this index as follows, 'The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland in a consistent way. It allows effective targeting of policies and funding where the aim is to wholly or partly tackle or take account of area concentrations of multiple deprivation. The SIMD ranks small areas (called data zones) from most deprived (ranked 1) to least deprived (ranked 6,505). People using the SIMD will often focus on the data zones below a certain rank, for example, the 5%, 10%, 15% or 20% most deprived data zones in Scotland.' How to use the SIMD - Scottish Government Guidance Data extracted 2013-12-17 from opendatascotland.org and data.glasgow.gov.uk Data supplied by The Scottish Government Licence: None simd-crime-2006-2012-glasgow-v2.xlsx - https://dataservices.open.glasgow.gov.uk/Download/Organisation/728522f0-86da-48c6-8f75-1649934eb8a4/Dataset/e021aa52-e858-4770-bd2b-733a9c53d84d/File/56b9ecbd-340b-4f6c-8c26-adfd0205c04e/Version/8d4fa076-3db5-4c40-ab0a-531ba242aeb0

There were 299,780 crimes recorded by the police in Scotland in 2023/24, a similar figure to the previous year, when there were 289,352 crimes reported. During this time period, there is a clear trend of falling crime, with 2004/05 having the highest number of crimes, and 2021/22 the fewest.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) is a social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland. The survey is an important resource for both the government and public of Scotland. Respondents are selected at random from the Postal Address File and participation in the survey is entirely voluntary. The main aims of the SCJS are to:provide reliable statistics on people's experience of crime in Scotland, including services provided to victims of crimeassess the varying risk of crime for different groups of people in the populationexamine trends in the level and nature of crime in Scotland over timecollect information about people's experiences of, and attitudes on a range of crime and justice related issuesAn important role of the SCJS is to provide an alternative and complementary measure of crime to police recorded crime statistics. For further details of the scope and methodology of the SCJS, please see documentation. Information about the survey and links to publications may be found on the Scottish Government's Scottish Crime and Justice Survey webpages. Background and history of the SCJSPrevious surveys of victimisation in Scotland began with the Scottish components of the 1982 and 1988 sweeps of the British Crime Survey (BCS) (held at the Archive under SNs 4368 and 4599) The Scottish element of the 1988 BCS was also known as the Scottish Areas Crime Survey and coverage was limited in those early surveys to the areas south of the Caledonian Canal. From 2012, the BCS has been renamed the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (held under GN 33174). The first independent Scotland-only crime survey was commissioned by the Scottish Office in 1993 under the title of the Scottish Crime Survey (SCS) and was followed by repeated sweeps in 1996 (both years held together under SN 3813), and again in 2000 (SN 4542) and 2003 (SN 5756). In 2004 the survey underwent both a name change, to the Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey (SCVS) (SN 5757), and a major methodological change, with a move away from in-home face-to-face interviewing to telephone interviewing. However, the 2006 SCVS (SN 5784) returned to face-to-face interviewing after it was shown that the robustness of the data produced by the 2004 telephone survey could not be substantiated. From 2008-2009, the series name was changed to the present title, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, and it moved to a repeated annual cross-sectional schedule based on financial year. From 2012-13 the SCJS moved from annual to biennial survey covering the financial year however, the 2014-15 survey was the last biennial survey and currently the SCJS is conducted on an annual basis. See the documentation for further details. Special Licence dataFrom 2012-13 only the Main Questionnaire data are available under standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. The Victim Form and Self-Completion data are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard EUL. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, 2018-2019 contains data from the Main Questionnaire only and is based on around 5,500 face-to-face interviews with adults (aged 16 or over) living in private households in Scotland.

Police Scotland is the second largest police force in the United Kingdom and covers the largest geographical area. The service area is covered by 13 policing divisions which were defined following the merger of the former police and fire regions and the Scottish Police Services Authority into a single service for Scotland. These divisions enable policing at the local level, and are supported by specialist resources from regional and national tiers including Specialist Crime Division (SCD), Operating Support Division (OSD), Contact, Command and Control Division (CCCD), Criminal Justice Services Division (CJSD) and Custody Division (CD). Police Divisions are based on aggregations of Local Authority areas (as delineated by Ordnance Survey), and remain in alignment with Local Authorities as these change.

A 2023 survey conducted in the United Kingdom found that 73 percent of women in Scotland believed that online violence should be made a criminal offense, whilst 55 percent of men in Scotland believed the same. Overall, almost 70 percent of women in England felt online violence should be made a criminal offense, compared to 50 percent of male respondents in England.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) is a social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland. The survey is an important resource for both the government and public of Scotland. Respondents are selected at random from the Postal Address File and participation in the survey is entirely voluntary. The main aims of the SCJS are to:provide reliable statistics on people's experience of crime in Scotland, including services provided to victims of crimeassess the varying risk of crime for different groups of people in the populationexamine trends in the level and nature of crime in Scotland over timecollect information about people's experiences of, and attitudes on a range of crime and justice related issuesAn important role of the SCJS is to provide an alternative and complementary measure of crime to police recorded crime statistics. For further details of the scope and methodology of the SCJS, please see documentation. Information about the survey and links to publications may be found on the Scottish Government's Scottish Crime and Justice Survey webpages. Background and history of the SCJSPrevious surveys of victimisation in Scotland began with the Scottish components of the 1982 and 1988 sweeps of the British Crime Survey (BCS) (held at the Archive under SNs 4368 and 4599) The Scottish element of the 1988 BCS was also known as the Scottish Areas Crime Survey and coverage was limited in those early surveys to the areas south of the Caledonian Canal. From 2012, the BCS has been renamed the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (held under GN 33174). The first independent Scotland-only crime survey was commissioned by the Scottish Office in 1993 under the title of the Scottish Crime Survey (SCS) and was followed by repeated sweeps in 1996 (both years held together under SN 3813), and again in 2000 (SN 4542) and 2003 (SN 5756). In 2004 the survey underwent both a name change, to the Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey (SCVS) (SN 5757), and a major methodological change, with a move away from in-home face-to-face interviewing to telephone interviewing. However, the 2006 SCVS (SN 5784) returned to face-to-face interviewing after it was shown that the robustness of the data produced by the 2004 telephone survey could not be substantiated. From 2008-2009, the series name was changed to the present title, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, and it moved to a repeated annual cross-sectional schedule based on financial year. From 2012-13 the SCJS moved from annual to biennial survey covering the financial year however, the 2014-15 survey was the last biennial survey and currently the SCJS is conducted on an annual basis. See the documentation for further details. Special Licence dataFrom 2012-13 only the Main Questionnaire data are available under standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. The Victim Form and Self-Completion data are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard EUL. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. SCJS 2008-2009: The sample design for the SCJS 2008-2009 differed from those of the preceding SCVS and SCS surveys in a number of important respects. Firstly, its planned annual sample size of 16,000 interviews was considerably larger than before (for example the 2006 SCVS had a sample size of 5,000). Secondly, the required design had to obtain the equivalent of at least 1,000 simple random sample interviews in each Police Force Area (PFA). Lastly, whereas the previous surveys had completely clustered designs, the majority of the SCJS sample was un-clustered; clustering only occurred in the more sparsely populated 'rural' areas of Scotland. Fieldwork for the 2008-2009 SCJS began in April 2008 and finished in March 2009, with a target of 1,333 interviews being conducted each calendar month. For further details, see documentation. Main Topics: The 2008-2009 SCJS questionnaire consisted of the following modules:Main questionnaire: demographic details, general views on crime and social issues, victim form screener victim form (repeated up to five times, based on information from the screeners section): incident details, perception of the offender and the incident, support and advice received, experience of criminal justice system organisationsfull sample module: community sentencing, criminal justice systemquarter-sample modules (addresses are randomly allocated to one of four modules at the sampling stage), covering fear of crime, workplace violence, criminal justice system organisations, experience of being insulted/pestered/intimidated, fraud (card and identity), civil justice, road safety camerasself-completion questionnaire, covering illicit drug use, stalking and harassment, partner abuse, and sexual victimisation. For further details of coverage, see documentation. Multi-stage stratified random sample Face-to-face interview Self-completion Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) and Computer Assisted Self Interview (CASI) are used for the main questionnaires/victim forms and self-completion questionnaires respectively. 2008 2009 ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT ADMINISTRATION OF J... ADULTS AGE AGGRESSIVENESS ALCOHOL USE ALCOHOLISM AMPHETAMINES ANXIETY ARREST ASSAULT ASSISTANCE ALARM SY... ATTITUDES BICYCLES BULLYING BURGLARY CANNABIS CHILD ABUSE CHILD BEHAVIOUR CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CHILDREN COCAINE COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY SERVICE P... COSTS CRIME AND SECURITY CRIME PREVENTION CRIME VICTIMS CRIMINAL DAMAGE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION CRIMINALS CULTURAL GOODS Crime and law enfor... DETENTION DISABILITIES DISEASES DOGS DOMESTIC RESPONSIBI... DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DRIVING DRIVING LICENCES DRUG ABUSE DRUG ADDICTION DRUG EDUCATION DRUG TRAFFICKING DRUG USE ECONOMIC VALUE ECSTASY DRUG EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND EMOTIONAL STATES EMPLOYMENT ETHNIC CONFLICT ETHNIC GROUPS EVERYDAY LIFE EVIDENCE EXTRACURRICULAR ACT... FACILITIES FAMILIES FAMILY ENVIRONMENT FAMILY MEMBERS FEAR FEAR OF CRIME FINANCIAL COMPENSATION FINANCIAL RESOURCES FINES FRAUD FRIENDS FULL TIME EMPLOYMENT GARAGES GENDER GUNS HARASSMENT HEADS OF HOUSEHOLD HEALTH HEALTH SERVICES HEROIN HOME OWNERSHIP HOUSEHOLD HEAD S OC... HOUSEHOLDS HOUSING HUMAN BEHAVIOUR INCOME INDUSTRIES INFORMATION INJURIES INSURANCE INSURANCE CLAIMS INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT INTERPERSONAL RELAT... INTRUDER ALARM SYSTEMS JUDGMENTS LAW JURIES JUVENILE DELINQUENCY LANDLORDS LEAVING HOME YOUTH LEGAL PROCEDURE LEISURE TIME ACTIVI... LIFE STYLES LIGHTING LIVING CONDITIONS LOCATION LOCKS LSD DRUG MANAGERS MARITAL STATUS MEDICAL CARE MENTAL DISORDERS MONEY MOTOR VEHICLES OFFENCES OFFENSIVE TELEPHONE... OPEN SPACES AND REC... PARENT CHILD RELATI... PARENTAL SUPERVISION PART TIME EMPLOYMENT PEER GROUP RELATION... PERFORMANCE PERSONAL CONTACT PERSONAL FASHION GOODS PERSONAL SAFETY PLACE OF RESIDENCE POCKET MONEY POLICE CORRUPTION POLICE OFFICERS POLICE SERVICES POLICING PRISON SENTENCES PRISON SYSTEM PRISONERS PROBATION PROSECUTION SERVICE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS PUBLIC INFORMATION PUBLIC TRANSPORT QUALITY OF EDUCATION QUALITY OF LIFE RACIAL PREJUDICE RECREATIONAL FACILI... REFUSE RENTED ACCOMMODATION RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY RETIREMENT RISK ROAD SAFETY ROBBERY SATISFACTION SCHOOL PUNISHMENTS SCHOOLS SEXUAL ASSAULT SEXUAL OFFENCES SHELTERED HOUSING SHOPLIFTING SHOPS SMOKING SOCIAL ACTIVITIES L... SOCIAL CLASS SOCIAL HOUSING SOCIAL SUPPORT SOLVENT ABUSE SPOUSES STREET LIGHTING STUDENTS SUPERVISORS Social behaviour an... TELECOMMUNICATIONS TELEPHONES TENANTS HOME PURCHA... TERMINATION OF SERVICE THEFT THEFT PROTECTION TIED HOUSING TIME TRAFFIC OFFENCES TRANQUILLIZERS TRUANCY UNEMPLOYED UNEMPLOYMENT VAGRANTS VOLUNTARY WELFARE O... WEAPONS WORKPLACE YOUTH YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

In 2023/24 there were ***** hate crime charges reported to the prosecution service in Scotland, compared with ***** in the previous year.