Crime in Aberdeenshire and Moray: Crime in Scotland has nearly halved over past decade
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A report published today has stated that crime in Scotland has nearly halved over the past decade.
According to the Scottish Crime and Justice Report, the volume of crime in Scotland – including incidents not reported to the police – has fallen by 46 per cent since 2008/09.
As per usual, this annual report was compiled following interviews with members of the public.
A total of 5568 interviews were conducted between April 2019 and March 2020, and therefore don't take into account what has happened since the first lockdown.
The report found that the proportion of adults experiencing no crime at all had increased from four in five a decade ago to seven in eight between April 2019 and March 2020.
It also estimated there had been 563,000 crimes in 2019/20.
Of these 369,000 (66 per cent) were property crimes and 194,000 (34 per cent) were violent crimes.
Most property offences were for vandalism (38 per cent), followed by household theft (27 per cent), personal theft (22 per cent), car theft (8 per cent) and housebreaking (6 per cent).
The vast majority of all violent crimes were minor assaults not resulting in injury (73 per cent), while 10 per cent were minor assaults.
Attempted assaults and serious assaults both accounted for 6 per cent, with the remaining 5 per cent of all violent crimes being robberies.
However, the same report stated that certain types of sexual crimes have risen over the past decade.
The number of adults reporting unwanted sexual touching has risen from 4.8 per cent to 7.4 per cent.
The majority of adults (55 per cent) said the police in their local area do an excellent or good job. This figure has fallen from 61 per cent in 2012/13 when the question was first asked.
More than three-quarters (77 per cent) said they felt very or fairly safe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark, up from 66 per cent in 2008/09.
However, 60 per cent of adults said they were not confident that the Scottish justice system gives sentences which fit the crime.
Commenting on the report, Moray's MP said its findings are very much to be welcomed.
Richard Lochhead added: "It is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our police and community volunteers in Moray who have contributed to a phenomenal effort to make our streets safer.
"The SNP Scottish Government has introduced ambitious projects to tackle crime, particularly violent crime, and it is satisfying to see these are paying off.
"Although these figures are encouraging, this report does show there is work to be done to ensure that people feel safe on our streets – especially so that women feel safe walking the streets at night.
"While we will never be complacent when it comes to tackling crime on the streets of Moray, these figures show that the SNP continues to have a solid record of progress and a positive vision to make our communities safer."
More on the report here
