A violent crime an hour
SNP’s boast of ‘safe Scotland’ exposed as a myth as killings and assaults surge by 16pc in just one year to 8-year high
VIOLENT crimes have soared to an eight-year high in Scotland, with one offence reported to police every hour.
The latest figures show violence has rocketed by 16 per cent in only a year – undermining claims by the SNP that the country is becoming safer.
Ministers said the rise had been fuelled by nearly 1,700 offences under a tough new domestic abuse law.
Police Scotland also said the ‘harm’ caused by criminality had risen as figures showed the proportion of sex crimes solved is at its lowest level since 1979.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘We have consistently called for the SNP to abandon their soft-touch approach to crime.
‘Those calls have been ignored and now we’re seeing the consequences. Violent crime has soared under the SNP’s softtouch justice system, and these figures show no sign of that changing.’
According to the Scottish Government figures on recorded crime for 2019-20, nonsexual crimes of violence increased by 16 per cent, from 8,008 in 2018-19 to 9,316 – an average of about 25 a day, or more than one an hour. This is the highest number since 2011-12 when 9,484 violent crimes were recorded.
Officials insisted the rise was due to the recording of 1,681 crimes under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which aims to tackle psychological coercion and treats it as a crime of violence.
Homicides, including causing death by dangerous driving, rose from 102 to 121 – a 19 per cent increase. Sexual crimes fell 1 per cent from 13,547 to 13,364, with the number of rapes and attempted rapes reported falling from 2,462 to 2,343.
This is the first time sexual crime has fallen in a decade, and the second-highest figure since the 1970s. The proportion of non-sexual violent crimes solved by police fell from 73.7 per cent to 71.7 per cent, while the clear-up rate for sexual crime fell from 58.1 per cent to 56.3 per cent – the lowest level since 1979.
Total crimes recorded in 2019/20 increased slightly from 494,271 to 497,178 with 51.5 per cent solved, compared with 51 per cent the previous year.
The coronavirus lockdown was only in place for the final few days of the reporting year, so the report’s authors say it is ‘unlikely to have had a significant effect’.
Noting the change in offending, the report said: ‘Sexual crimes have been on a long-term upward trend since 1974. Prior to the decrease in 2019-20, there had been increases each year since 2008-09.’
Holyrood justice committee member and Nationalist MSP Rona Mackay said: ‘Communities across Scotland are now safer places to live thanks to commonsense policies which deliver for people across the country.’
But Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said: ‘Women and men should feel safe to walk the streets, but with so many sexual offences going unpunished, it is clear much more needs to be done.
‘The people of Scotland, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, deserve to be safe from harm. It is time the SNP got to grips with its duty to keep Scotland safe.’
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: ‘I am pleased that victims of domestic abuse have confidence in the collective actions of Scotland’s police and wider justice and third-sector partners, to come forward and report these cases.
‘We must learn from our success in reducing violence on our streets to help keep people safer in their homes, in particular those who are subjected to, or at risk of, domestic abuse.’
Deputy Chief Constable Fiona Taylor said: ‘Police officers and staff work with commitment and a dedication to public service to build and maintain our peaceful and respectful way of life. Scotland remains a safe place.’
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