Statistics on crime in general

* New * Police recorded crime increased by 3% between year ending December 2024 and year ending December 2025. The total number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland in the year ending December 2025 was 308,532. This was 10,226 crimes (or 3%) higher than the level recorded in the year ending December 2024. The recording of crime is down 50% from its peak in 1991.

Chart 1 : Number of crimes recorded by the police (in thousands) – December 2021 to December 2025

* New * Property and violent crime has fallen by 42% since 2008-09. Results from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) show that one-in-five (20.8%) adults were estimated to have experienced at least one crime in 2024-25. This included property crime (9.4% of adults), violent crime (2.5%) and for the second time fraud and computer misuse (11.5%). The latest findings show that the overall level of property and violent crime combined and the likelihood of being a victim of these crimes has fallen since 2008/09 but have been stable in recent years.

Chart 2: Estimated total crimes (in thousands) – by survey year

* New * Recorded violent crime increased in the most recent year. Non-sexual crimes of violence recorded by the police increased by 5%, from 70,635 in the year ending December 2024 to 74,384 in the year ending December 2025. Common assault (up 5%) made up the clear majority (83%) of all non-sexual crimes of violence recorded in the year ending September 2025. The SCJS showed that in 2023-24 the volume of violent crime increased by 73% since 2021-22. However, this is still 27% lower than 2008-09 and does not show a statistically significant change from 2019-20. It also showed that an estimated 44% of violent crime in 2023-24 was reported to the police.

* New * Recorded sexual crimes increased in the most recent year. Sexual crimes increased by 10%, from 14,539 in the year ending December 2024 to 16,029 in the year ending December 2025. Sexual crimes have been increasing in the long term. Multiple factors lie behind the long term increase in recorded sexual crime including for example - historical reporting, more online offending and the impact of new legislation. The latest available data from the SCJS, for 2018-20 (2018-19 & 2019-20 combined) estimated that 3.6% of adults experienced at least one serious sexual assault since the age of 16, unchanged from 2008-09.

Women more likely to experience partner abuse. The SCJS, for 2018-20, estimated that 3.2% of respondents had experienced partner abuse in the year prior to interview. A higher proportion of women than men experienced this, at 3.7% and 2.6% respectively.

Increase in crime clear up rate. The clear up rate for all recorded crimes was 56.0% in 2024-25, up from 54.1% in 2023-24. Crimes against society (93.8%), non-sexual crimes of violence (68.4%) and sexual crimes (56.9%) continued to have higher clear up rates in 2024-25 than crimes of dishonesty (35.1%) and damage and reckless behaviour (31.0%).

Number of victims of homicide at the lowest level since 1976. There were 45 homicide victims recorded by the police in Scotland in 2024-25, a 21% decrease from 2023-24 and a 24% decrease from 2015-16.

Chart 3: Number of victims of homicide, 2015-16 to 2024-25

Increase in recorded domestic abuse incidents. There were 63,867 incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police in 2023-24, an increase of 3% on 2022-23. In 2023-24, 38% of all incidents recorded by the police included the recording of at least one crime or offence.

Chart 4: Number of domestic abuse incidents, 2016-17 to 2023-24