Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 1998: CrJ/1999/6

2. Summary

• In 1998 the Scottish police recorded 985 offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been used, a decrease of 17 per cent from the 1,187 recorded in 1997, and the lowest figure recorded since 1989. The number of offences involving a firearm other than an airweapon also decreased, down 21 per cent to total 319 in 1998.

• As in previous years, an airweapon was the most commonly used firearm. Airweapons accounted for over two thirds of all offences involving firearms in 1998. The total number of offences which involved the use of an airweapon decreased by 15 per cent from 783 in 1997 to 666 in 1998. Though the number of offences involving the alleged use of a pistol/revolver has been decreasing since 1996, the level in 1998 - at 123- remains high at 64 per cent above the number recorded in 1995.

• Of the 650 offences in which a firearm was actually fired, 570 (88 per cent) involved the use of an airweapon. Of those offences involving an airweapon, 215 resulted in injury to a person and 322 resulted in damage to property. A shotgun was fired in 16 offences resulting in personal injury in 8 cases (50 per cent).

• The use of firearms in criminal activity constituted only a small and decreasing proportion of all offences recorded by the police in 1998; 7 per cent of recorded homicides (7 offences), 3 per cent of recorded attempted murders (19 offences) and less than 3 per cent of recorded robberies (135 offences). Less than half a per cent of recorded assaults (213 offences) and vandalism offences (263 offences) involved the alleged use of a firearm.

In 1998, 30 per cent of offences involving the alleged use of a firearm occurred in a dwelling. Two per cent occurred in banks, building societies or post offices and a further 33 per cent on public highways.

• The Strathclyde police force area which contains 44 per cent of the Scottish population, accounted for more than one half (56 per cent) of all offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been used in 1998. More specifically, 81 per cent of recorded robberies, 61 per cent of assaults but only 50 per cent of vandalism offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been used took place in Strathclyde.
• The total number of offences cleared up (where one or more persons were accused of the offence) decreased by 21 per cent, from 541 offences in 1997 to 430 in 1998. This equated to a clear-up rate of 44 per cent, a decrease of 2 percentage points when compared with 1997.
• In 1998 the police recorded 25 offences in which a firearm other than an airweapon had been stolen, the lowest number recorded since this information was first collected in 1978.