Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Data Report: September 2025
This report contains summary statistics covering a number of important justice and safer communities areas. It is updated with the most recently published statistics.
*New* Police recorded crime changed little between year ending June 2024 and year ending June 2025, increasing by 1%. The total number of crimes recorded by the police in Scotland in the year ending June 2025 was 303,343. This was 3,265 crimes (or 1%) higher than the level recorded in the year ending June 2024. The recording of crime remains below the position immediately prior to the pandemic (2019-20) and is down 51% from its peak in 1991.
Chart 1 : Number of crimes recorded by the police (in thousands) – June 2021 to June 2025
Property and violent crime has fallen by 37% since 2008-09. Results from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) show that one-in-five (19.9%) adults were estimated to have experienced at least one crime in 2023-24. This included property crime (10.3% of adults), violent crime (2.9%) and for the first time fraud and computer misuse (9.5%). 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 increased since 2021-22. However, no change is detected with the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20, and both measures are down since 2008-09.
Chart 2: Estimated total crimes (in thousands) – by survey year
*New* Recorded violent crime changed little in the most recent year. Non-sexual crimes of violence recorded by the police increased by 1%, from 71,349 in the year ending June 2024 to 71,915 in the year ending June 2025. Common assault (up 1%) made up the clear majority (83%) of all non-sexual crimes of violence recorded in the year ending June 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 5%, from 14,417 in the year ending June 2024 to 15,129 in the year ending June 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 third lowest since 1976. There were 57 homicide victims recorded by the police in Scotland in 2023-24, a 10% increase from 2022-23 but a 10% decrease from 2014-15.
Chart 3: Number of victims of homicide, 2014-15 to 2023-24
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