Violent crime near 10yr high in SNP’s sof t-touch Scotland
VIOLENT crime in Scotland is heading towards a ten-year high after soaring above pre-pandemic levels.
Figures show there were 789 non-sexual crimes of violence last month, which was 17 per cent higher than a year ago when the country was in lockdown and 7 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels in January 2020.
Sexual crimes soared by a third last month compared with the previous year, taking them 3 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels.
The figures have led to fresh outrage at the SNP’s ‘softtouch’ approach to justice.
Violent crime hit an eightyear high in 2019/20 before falling significantly while Covid restrictions were in place in 2020/21.
But the latest figures show that, with just two months to go in 2021/22, there have already been 8,218 violent crimes recorded by police, which is 4 per cent higher than the first ten months of 2019/20.
Jamie Greene, justice spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: ‘Violent crime is surging on the SNP’s watch and all the signs point to incidents hitting shocking new record highs.
‘Almost 800 violent incidents occurring in one month is completely unacceptable.
‘The SNP’s continued softtouch justice approach is completely failing to clamp down on violent incidents and many criminals feel they will go unpunished for appalling crimes.
‘Policies such as the presumption against short sentences and automatic early release send out all the wrong signals to offenders.’
Mr Greene said officers are ‘operating with one hand tied behind their back thanks to real-terms SNP cuts to their capital budget’, and police numbers are ‘at their lowest level since March 2009’.
He added: ‘It is victims who are paying a heavy price.’
The number of sexual and violent crimes recorded by police plunged during the two lockdowns but have now soared again. latest figures published by the Scottish Government yesterday showed there were 789 nonsexual crimes of violence last month, compared with 672 a year earlier and 736 in January 2020.
Attempted murder and serious assault, robbery and domestic abuse all increased significantly last month.
Some 1,145 sexual crimes were recorded by police last month, compared with 861 in January last year and 1,107 two years ago. Crimes of dishonesty, including theft, housebreaking and fraud, increased by 17 per cent in the past year, from 6,811 in January 2021 to 7,944 last month, but are 8 per cent lower than the 8,658 in January 2020.
Drug-related crime continued to fall, with the Scottish Government recently announcing warnings could be issued for people caught with any drugs, including class A substances. The number of drug crimes increased from 2,330 in January 2020 to 2,628 in January 2021 but then fell to 2,131 last month.
Detective Superintendent Fil Capaldi, head of the sexual crime unit at Police Scotland, said rape and serious sexual crime ‘is vastly underreported’ and he hoped the increase in the number of sexual crimes ‘is down to victims’ confidence in coming forward, knowing our dedicated, professional officers will fully investigate every report’.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Over the long term, we have seen a significant reduction of police recorded non-sexual violent crime of 36 per cent between 2006/07 and 2020/21. Despite UK Government austerity we have increased police funding year-on-year since 2016/17.’
SOFT TOUCH JUSTICE