Violent crime convictions jump 20% due to ‘bad year’ for assaults
VIOLENT crime convictions in Scotland have jumped by more than one-fifth, with increases in attempted murder, serious assault and robbery.
Figures released by the Scottish Government reveal a 21 per cent year on year rise in convictions for non-sexual violent crime, with a total of 2,142 in 2019/20.
Almost 1,300 people were convicted of attempted murder or serious assault – the highest number since 2011/12, while 410 people were guilty of robbery.
According to the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland 2019/20 publication, the increase was also linked to the introduction of new domestic abuse legislation which saw 206 convictions in its first year of operation.
Will Linden, deputy director of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, said it is likely that the increase in 2019/20 was a “blip”.
He claimed that the crime statistics for 2018/19 showed a 4% increase in attempted murders and serious assaults, which would correspond to the rise in convictions in 2019/20, but that the crime figure decreased again in 2019/20.
“The reality with violence just now is that we’ve got a consistently high level,” he said.
“It’s been consistent from about 2015/16. It’s just that 2018/19 was a particularly bad year.
“However, it wasn’t consistent across Scotland. For example Glasgow – which is always a main driver of violent crime in Scotland – showed very little change that year, whereas you had increases in
Edinburgh and the Borders. Glasgow had an increase in robberies, whereas Edinburgh had a decrease, so there wasn’t a consistent picture for the country in terms of what was happening in that period.
“But what we’ve seen since is a decrease back down again so that year might just have been a blip.”
He added: “You’ve got different factors such as the introduction of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act, a slight increase in robbery, a slight increase in attempted murder and serious assault, so there are a number of different factors that have caused that big jump, but the corresponding increase in violence wasn’t as high as 21%.”
The publication shows that the overall number of criminal convictions in Scotland fell in 2019/20, continuing a trend of declining figures over the last 10 years.
A total of 85,726 people were “proceeded against” in Scottish courts in 2019-20, a fall of 4% from the previous year, while the number of convictions fell at the same rate – down 4% to 75,251.
The number of convictions for homicide remained unchanged over the year, while sexual convictions decreased by 2% to 1,204.
Convictions linked to domestic abuse increased by 5% to 7,751, while new offences under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act – which were brought into force on April 1, 2019 – resulted in 206 convictions.
Scottish Women’s Aid welcomed the data on the new legislation, which criminalises psychological domestic abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour.
Marsha Scott, CEO of the charity, said: “Although it is very early data, our new domestic abuse law shows signs of living up to its global ‘gold standard’ label.
“A conviction rate of 84% is impressive, and we wish to applaud the efforts of our colleagues in COPFS and Police Scotland.”
However, she added that she had some concerns over sentences in domestic abuse cases as the figures showed that nearly two-thirds of disposals were community sentences.
“We need clearer information about these sentences,” she said.
The statistics also revealed that convictions for crimes related to sexual orientation were at a 10-year high at 420, while racially aggravated convictions were at a 10-year low. Religiously aggravated convictions rose 12% year on year.