Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2024-25
Statistics on crimes and offences recorded and cleared up by the police in Scotland in 2024-25, split by crime or offence group and by local authority.
Part of
Antisocial offences
Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, the number of Antisocial offences recorded by the police in Scotland increased by <1% from 47,833 to 47,942. In the last 10 years, the number of Antisocial offences has decreased by 50% from 95,288 in 2015-16 to 47,942 in 2024-25.
The national rate of recorded Antisocial offences was 87 offences per 10,000 population in 2024-25. This has remained unchanged from 87 per 10,000 population in 2023-24, but decreased from 178 per 10,000 population in 2015-16.
In 2024-25, of all Antisocial offences:
- Threating and abusive behaviour accounted for the majority (90%)
- Drunkenness and other disorderly conduct accounted for 5%
- Hate aggravated conduct accounted for 4%
- Urinating, etc. accounted for 1%
Figure 22 below presents the offence categories within Antisocial offences over the latest 10 years and gives an indication of the trend and scale of each category.
Figure 22. Threatening and abusive behaviour offences and Drunkenness and other disorderly conduct offences have decreased significantly in the last 10 years, driving a decrease in Antisocial offences.
Antisocial offences recorded by the police, by category, Scotland, 2015-16 to 2024-25.
Threatening and abusive behaviour
Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, recorded offences of Threatening and abusive behaviour increased by <1% from 43,085 to 43,161 offences. There was a 29% decrease over the 10 year period between 2015-16 and 2024-25, from 60,798 to 43,161 offences.
The Threatening and abusive behaviour category includes offences of Threatening or abusive behaviour (which account for the vast majority of the category, at 89%), Threatening and abusive behaviour of a retail worker (8%) and Breach of the peace offences (3%).
Threatening and abusive behaviour of a retail worker is a subset of the Threatening and abusive behaviour category, which came into effect on the 24 August 2021. This was introduced by the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021. There were 3,273 such offences recorded in 2024-25. More information on this legislation is provided in Annex 1.
The offence of Abortion Services (Safe access zone) came in to effect following implementation of the Abortion Services (Safe access zone) (Scotland) Act 2024 in September 2024. One offence was recorded in 2024-25. More information on this new legislation is provided in Annex 1.
Hate aggravated conduct
Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, recorded offences of Hate aggravated conduct increased by 21% from 1,597 to 1,929 offences. There was a 10% decrease over the 10 year period between 2015-16 and 2024-25, from 2,138 to 1,929 offences.
Within Hate aggravated conduct, a new offence of Stirring up Hatred: Other Group was implemented on 1 April 2024 after the introduction of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. There is also a new crime code which specifically identifies Stirring up Hatred: Racial, prior to April 2024 these offences were recorded under the crime code Race Relations Act. In 2024/25 there were 75 offences of Stirring up Hatred: Racial and 64 offences of Stirring up Hatred: Other Group, which combined made up 7% of the Hate aggravated conduct category.
More detail on these offences is provided in Table A10 in the 'Supporting documents' Excel workbook and in the User Guide.
Contact
Email: Justice_Analysts@gov.scot