Domestic abuse and sex crimes on the increase, official figures show

Domestic abuse is up by 25 per cent in a year, new figures show.

The Recorded Crime in Scotland bulletin, published by Scotland’s chief statistician today, reveals violent crime and sexual offences are on the increase.

Police handled more than 308,530 crimes last year. The three per cent overall increase includes a 13 per cent spike in non-sexual crimes of violence, which amounted to 74,390 incidents, and a 10 per cent rise in sexual offences, which reached 16,030 incidents.

Within that, while murder and culpable homicide was down in the 12 months to December, resulting in a year-on-year drop of two cases, crimes of domestic abuse went up by 25 per cent to 3,010. The total is a 75 per cent increase on the 2021 level.

The figure covers crimes under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act, which takes in violent, threatening or intimidating conduct towards a partner or former partner, as well as coercive control and financial abuse.

Meanwhile, cases involving indecent photographs of children went up by 20 per cent to 960, with incidents of rape and attempted rape increasing by 12 per cent to 3,120.

And crimes against society, such as drugs possession and bail offences, rose by six per cent to 66,430 over the year, with crimes of dishonesty up to 113,730 in a rise of two per cent.

In contrast, incidents of damage and reckless behaviour were down by three per cent to 37,960 in the 12 months ending in December.

Liam Kerr MSP, Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, said: “Scotland is paying the price for 19 years of SNP failure on crime and justice and these figures are a national humiliation.

“Violent crime up. Rape up. Domestic abuse up. Shoplifting exploding by 137 per cent. Child sex offences soaring. This is not a blip, it is a pattern of decay on the SNP’s watch.

“Their reckless presumption against short prison sentences has sent a clear message to repeat offenders: there are no real consequences to committing crime in Scotland.”

Justice secretary Angela Constance said: “I am, of course, very concerned by the rise in recorded sexual offences and domestic abuse offences. Whilst we have taken action to increase confidence in the justice system so that more victims can come forward to report sexual crimes, I am appalled that these crimes, which are mainly against women, take place in the first place.

“I recognise that multiple factors will be behind the rise. We are continuing to make changes to the justice system to make it easier for victims to report incidents and we have legislated to give police, prosecutors and the courts greater powers to tackle domestic abuse crimes. I hope victims can take reassurance from these statistics that the law will respond robustly to crimes of this nature.

“We continue to work with partners to implement Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. This includes work to prevent violence from occurring, to build the capacity of support services, and to strengthen the justice response to victims and perpetrators. In 2026-28 we will invest £43.2m through our Delivering Equally Safe Fund, in addition to record funding for policing of more than £1.7bn in the draft budget.”