That should read ‘treat’. How an otherwise excellent comedian continued to get laughs out an outdated image of the country with the lowest domestic violence levels in the UK.

Professor John Robertson OBA

This was first published in Scots Independent in February 2025

In 2005, only 20 years ago, according to the United Nations, Glasgow had the highest murder rate in the UK, higher than in Albania or Romania and was referred to in the media as the ‘Murder Capital of Europe.’ Scotland had a murder rate three times higher than in other parts of the UK.

In sharp contrast to recent times when the First Minister, his government and the SNP are regularly condemned for negative statistics such as those for a high drug death rate, the Labour/Lib Dem government in 2005 was rarely if ever blamed for these appalling figures.

Barely 20 years later, including 17 years of SNP administration, life in Scotland is transformed. Homicide has plummeted from between 120 and 130 per year in the last years of the Labour/Lib Dem government from 2005-2007 to an average of 54 in the last 5 years and only 49 last year.

Based on police reporting, overall crime has also fallen dramatically in Scotland, by 43% since 2008, to the lowest level since 1974. Not all crimes are, of course, reported but 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 research has actually found a steeper fall, of 53% since 2008. To triangulate the above two sources, opinion polls in recent years repeatedly find that Scots are significantly less likely to identify crime as a major concern for them, than those living in other parts of the UK.

Glasgow still has the highest crime rate in Scotland but it’s very important to note that, in the last 10 years it has fallen by 12%, faster than across Scotland, where it fell by only 5% in the same period.

The improvements permeate all areas of life. According to the Guardian survey, all of Scotland’s university campuses, including Glasgow, have lower violent crime rates than anywhere in the rest of the UK, including notably Oxford and Cambridge. Even our railway stations are safer, with Glasgow coming in at only 1 458 in a survey, with crime levels at major UK stations many times higher.

Sadly, only rape and domestic abuse remain stubbornly high in Scotland, though in part due to increased reporting, but rape offences are now between 2 and 3 times as common and domestic abuse is twice as common, per head of population, in England and Wales.

Similarly, in 2024, England had 3 times as many crimes overall and 60% more crimes of violence per head of population, as Scotland.

These comparisons are never reported and yet drug deaths, the only figures representing Scotland more negatively that the rest of the UK, are mentioned at every opportunity.

Scotland’s media however, do not report this transformation but continue to scare their audiences with accounts of individual crimes out of any context. Crime drama plays a similar role with more crime drama as real crime falls and Scots often stereotyped as violent. Comedians too, apparently unaware, perhaps lazily unconcerned, continue to characterise Scots as violent, drunken and dishonest. Scottish comedians too often rely on theses stereotypes for their performances. In 2014 after the referendum defeat, Frankie Boyle told an audience that Scotland should become an Islamic Republic but that ‘we’d have to treat our women better.’ There is clearly a long cultural lag operating here between events on the ground and popular cultural tropes.

Apart from you and I, do you think many folk in Scotland, thanks to the media, crime writers and comedians, know any of this?