Homicide in Scotland 2022-23

Relationship of main accused to victim

Tables 8-10

The victim and main accused were known to each other in a majority of cases, representing 39 (75%) of homicides solved in 2022-23. The accused and victim were not known to each other in eight homicides (15%). The relationship to the main accused was unknown in the remaining 5 homicides (5%).

For those 39 homicides where the victim and accused were known to each other, 26 (66%) were acquaintances, 8 (21%) were partners or ex-partners and 5 (13%) were relatives.

Figure 8 shows the number of homicides for male and female victims by their relationship to the main accused for all victims since 2013-14. Over the past 10 years, most male victims were killed by an acquaintance (55%). In comparison, over the same period, female victims were most likely to be killed by a partner or ex-partner (42%).

Figure 8: In the past 10 years most male victims were killed by an acquaintance whilst female victims were most likely to be killed by a partner or ex-partner.

For the latest year of 2022-23, 54% (21 victims) of the 39 male victims were killed by an acquaintance. Of the 13 female victims, 46% (6 victims) were killed by a partner or ex-partner.

Table 9 shows that for the last five years, between 2018-19 and 2022-23, a total of 11 children under the age of 16 years were victims of homicide (where there was an accused person). Three were killed by one of their parents, one was killed by another relative, six were killed by acquaintances and one was killed by a stranger.

Figure 9 shows that over two-thirds of all homicide cases (69%) recorded between 2013-14 and 2022-23 involved males killing males. A further 23% of cases involved males killing females, 6% involved females killing males and cases where the main accused and main victim were both females accounted for just 3% of the total number.

Figure 9 : Over two thirds of homicide cases between 2013-14 and 2022-23 involved males killing males.