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Crime Trends
1. During 1998/99, the Scottish police recorded 433,919 crimes, 3 per cent more than in 1997/98.
2. Most of the eight police forces showed a rise in the number of crimes recorded between 1997/98 and 1998/99, Central (up 9 per cent), Strathclyde (up 5 per cent), Grampian, Lothian & Borders and Northern (all up 3 per cent) and Fife (up 2 per cent). Tayside showed a decrease of 5 per cent while Dumfries & Galloway showed an decrease of 6 per cent. These figures are shown graphically in Figure 1. Strathclyde police recorded 971 crimes per 10,000 population in 1998/99 - the highest rate of all forces and Northern Constabulary recorded the lowest number of crimes per 10,000 population (436). These figures are shown graphically in Figure 2.
Violence
3. In most of the sub-categories within the non-sexual crimes of violence group, the number of crimes recorded in 1998/99 was higher than the number recorded in 1997/98. However, the number of murders initially recorded by the police fell from 96 in 1998/99 to 89 in 1998/99, a decrease of 7 per cent, and attempted murders decreased by 1 per cent from 645 in 1997/98 to 638 in 1998/99. Recorded cases of serious assault increased by 10 per cent from 5,406 in 1997/98 to 5,931 in 1998/99 and the number of cases of "handling an offensive weapon" increased from 6,191 in 1997/98 to 7,102 in 1998/99, an increase of 15 per cent. The number of recorded cases of robbery rose by 10 per cent from 4,551 in 1998/99 to 5,027 in 1998/99. The "other" sub-category also showed an increase; up by 11 per cent to 2,950 and was mainly attributable to crimes of extortion and cruelty to and neglect of children.
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