By Professor John Robertson OBA
Many of us, understandably are skeptical about the picture of falling crime painted by statistics based on police recording. Correctly, we point to the fact that much crime is known to be unreported and unrecorded.
However, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), carried out by independent University-based researchers interviews around 5 000 Scots asking them to speak of ‘their experiences of, and attitudes to, a range of issues related to crime, policing and the justice system, including crime not reported to the police.‘
This is gold standard research and can be trusted to reveal the world as experienced by the wider population.
The survey update published today reveals:
The public feel safer in their local communities. The SCJS found that, in 2021-22, 76% of adults thought that the local crime rate had stayed the same or reduced in the past two years. This shows an improvement from 69% in 2008-09 and 73% in 2019-20.
In 2022-23, there were 1,600 emergency hospital admissions due to assault, including 405 due to assault with a sharp object. These were, respectively, 48% and 31% lower than in 2013-14.
There were 300 deliberate building fires in quarter 1 of 2024-25, down from 375 in the same quarter of 2023-24. Over the same period, the number of deliberate road vehicle fires fell from 182 to 170. There has been a long-term downward trend [see graph above] in deliberate building and deliberate road vehicle fires since this series began.
Source:
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Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
“Latest research suggests Scots feel safer as assaults leading to hospital admission and fire-raising, plummet in last 17 years”
Yet that is not reflected in how many “Scots” and others who live in Scotland chose to vote in the recent 2024 GE.
Did they vote for Labour, and also vote other pro UK parties, as opposed to voting for the SNP in Scotland , just to see if they could feel even safer than they already did via the suggested results of this research?
Or is this another case of a media blackout on this , as in it being actually noted or God forbid highlighted (who I am kidding) as excessively as they , as a media, choose to promote #SNPBAD stories.
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