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1. Introduction
1.1 This bulletin forms part of The Scottish Executive series of bulletins on the criminal justice system. It covers those crimes and offences recorded by the police in which a firearm was alleged to have been used or where a firearm was stolen. This information was submitted to The Scottish Executive by the eight Scottish police forces. Definitions of the terms and classifications used in the bulletin are given in the Annex. Numbers in the text have been rounded as appropriate.
1.2 Not all such crimes and offences are reported to the police. The extent of under-reporting is likely to vary considerably according to the seriousness of the crime or offence; for example, armed robberies are much more likely to be reported to the police than malicious damage caused by the firing of an airweapon. Moreover, the propensity of the public to report crimes and offences to the police is influenced by a number of factors and may therefore change over time; thus trends in the number of crimes and offences recorded may differ from trends in the number of crimes and offences committed.
Chart 1: Recorded crimes and offences involving firearms, by type of firearm, Scotland, 1989 - 1998
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