Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2024-25

Introduction

This bulletin presents statistics on the number of crimes and offences recorded by Police Scotland. These are derived from data held within the Source for Evidence Based Policing (SEBP), a data repository used and maintained by Police Scotland.

What is Recorded Crime?

Recorded crime covers crimes which are recorded by the police. Not all crimes are reported to, and therefore recorded by, the police. This means that recorded crime statistics do not measure all criminal activity. However, they do provide a measure of the volume of criminal activity with which the police are faced.

Information on legislative changes that have affected the recording of crime in Scotland can be found in Annex 1 and in the User Guide.

What is the difference between crimes and offences?

Contraventions of Scottish criminal law are divided for statistical purposes into crimes and offences. The term “crime” is generally used for the more serious criminal acts. The less serious are termed “offences”. The distinction is made only for statistical reporting purposes and has no impact on how the police investigate reports of criminal activity. The “seriousness” of the offence is generally related to the maximum sentence that can be imposed. This distinction has been consistently used in the Recorded Crime in Scotland bulletins since publication began in 1983 and, prior to this, in the Criminal statistics publication dating back to the 1920s.

A further distinction, although not absolute, is that the number of offences recorded by the police generally tends to be affected more by police activity and operational decisions than the numbers of crimes.

There are over 500 types of crimes and offences recorded by police in Scotland. To present these in a meaningful way, they are combined into distinct groups and categories. There are six crime groups and three offence groups. These groups are made up of 50 categories, referred to as the “Top 50”.

Breakdown of crime and offence groups

Crimes:

• Non-sexual crimes of violence
• Sexual crimes
• Crimes of dishonesty
• Damage and reckless behaviour
• Crimes against society
• Coronavirus restriction crimes (temporary legislation introduced in April 2020, expired April 2022).

Offences:

• Antisocial offences
• Miscellaneous offences
• Road traffic offences

How do Recorded Crime statistics compare to the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey?

The other main source of crime statistics in Scotland is the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), a national survey of adults (aged 16 and over) living in private households, which asks respondents about their experiences and perceptions of crime.

The survey provides a complementary measure of crime to police recorded crime statistics and allows a wider assessment of the overall level of crime victimisation, its characteristics, and likelihood of experiencing crime. The SCJS has consistently found that not all crimes are reported to, and therefore recorded by, the police therefore both publications should be consulted to get a fuller picture of crime in Scotland. The latest findings are available at SCJS 2023/24: Main findings.

The User Guide provides an overview of the main differences users may want to note when making comparisons between Recorded Crime statistics and the SCJS.

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

These statistics were accredited in September 2016 (Assessment of statistics on Recorded Crime in Scotland – Office for Statistics Regulation) and, in 2019, the Office for Statistics Regulation confirmed that the Recorded Crime in Scotland statistics should continue to be designated as Accredited Official Statistics, following a compliance check.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.