The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser closing on Friday, primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson

By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS 

Note: We all know crime reporting figures fell during the pandemic measures, such as social distancing and lockdown in 2020 to 2022, so there's little point in comparing the 2024 figures with anything other than the 2023 figures.

From Recorded Crime in Scotland: year ending December 2024 published today with the irrelevant pandemic period data removed:

• The police in Scotland recorded 298,308 crimes in the year ending December 2024. This was 1% lower than the 302,076 crimes recorded in the year ending December 2023
• Non-sexual crimes of violence were 2% lower compared to the year ending December 2023 (decreasing from 71,900 to 70,637 crimes).
• Sexual crimes were 2% lower compared to the year ending December 2023 (decreasing from 14,894 to 14,539 crimes).
• Crimes of dishonesty were <1% lower compared to the year ending December 2023 (decreasing from 111,682 to 111,265 crimes).
• Damage and reckless behaviour was 7% lower compared to the year ending December 2023 (decreasing from 42,124 to 39,249 crimes).
• Crimes against society were 2% higher compared to the year ending December 2023 (increasing from 61,476 to 62,618 crimes).
• Antisocial offences were 1% higher compared to the year ending December 2023 (increasing from 47,941 to 48,322 offences).
• Miscellaneous offences were 1% higher compared to the year ending December 2023 (increasing from 13,631 to 13,821 offences).
• Road traffic offences were 3% lower compared to the year ending December 2023 (decreasing from 118,044 to 115,029 offences).

Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-year-ending-december-2024/pages/key-points/

With 11 times the population, England and Wales might have been expected to have around 3 million crimes in the same period.

They had 9.5 million, more than THREE times as many!

Note, the huge increase in violence compared to the fall of 2%, in Scotland.

Crimes of violence at 1.14 million compared to 70.637 in Scotland (pro rata 706 370) are around 60% more common.

Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/latest

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