Proportion of incidents of domestic abuse which include the recording of at least one crime or offence.
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Official Statistics on domestic abuse incidents which include the recording of at least one crime or offence, based on details of incidents and crimes recorded by Police Scotland, which is not restricted to behaviour where criminal conduct has been identified and recorded. The full publication is available on the Scottish Government website.
This data covers incidents recorded over 12 months between 1 April to 31 March, from 2016/17 to 2022/23.
Domestic abuse recorded by the police does not reveal the incidence of all domestic abuse committed in Scotland, as not all incidents are reported to the police.
The definition of domestic abuse used by Police Scotland is: ‘Any form of physical, verbal, sexual, psychological or financial abuse which might amount to criminal conduct and which takes place within the context of a relationship. The relationship will be between partners (married, cohabiting, civil partnership or otherwise) or ex-partners. The abuse can be committed in the home or elsewhere including online’.
Contraventions of Scottish criminal law are divided into crimes and offences. The term “crime" is generally used for the more serious criminal acts and the less serious are termed "offences". The distinction is made only for statistical reporting purposes and does not influence the way the police investigate reports of criminal activity. The seriousness of the offence is generally related to the maximum sentence that can be imposed and does not relate to the impact on the individual experiencing the incident.
In addition, in one criminal incident, several crimes or offences may occur, such as a suspected perpetrator may assault their spouse and damage their car in the process. In this example, crimes of vandalism and assault would be recorded. Statistics in this bulletin either relate to the number of incidents recorded or the number of incidents with at least one crime or offence committed.
Please note that figures for the proportions of incidents which include the recording of a crime or offence are only provided from 2016/17 onwards. This is due to a change in the way in which domestic abuse data was collected following the creation of Police Scotland. Prior to 1 April 2013, each legacy police force had a bespoke system to collect the data required. Between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014, the interim Vulnerable Persons Database (iVPD) system was rolled out to the then 14 police divisions in Scotland. From 1 April 2014 onwards, all domestic abuse data was collected through the iVPD. Due to these changes which affect comparability over time, figures before 2016/17 are not presented and are marked as '-'. Figures for 2014/15 and 2015/16 were previously provided however they are no longer comparable due to changes in recording practice.
This dataset does not contain any personal information. Results are published on an aggregated level.
This data is based on Police Scotland’s management information which has undergone further quality assurance work.
Figures are checked against previous years and comparable sources. Anything unusual or which requires further explanation is fed back to Police Scotland for their attention. Any amendments are carried out and the final data is used to produce a set of data tables which can be used to check the final dataset.
During the quality assurance checking process, it is possible for errors to be found in data for previous years. Whilst figures are not routinely revised, any changes or corrections made to previously published data are suitably explained in line with the Scottish Government’s guidance on Producing Official Statistics. Care is taken when processing, quality assuring and analysing the data, however this is occasionally subject to the inaccuracies that are inherent in any large administrative recording system.
As outlined above, these statistics are based upon returns made by Police Scotland to the Scottish Government, and are a by-product of administrative processes, which undergo further quality assurance work.
Whilst information on the number of domestic abuse incidents in Scotland is available dating back to 1999-00, caution should be exercised when making any long-term trend comparisons. Due to the changes in the way data was collected after April 2013 following the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, information in the publication is presented with clear breaks in the time series between 2013-14 and 2014-15. As such, some caution should be exercised in interpreting the statistics on the number of incidents recorded across years. In addition, 2009-10 was the first year in which this data was submitted based on the date the incident was recorded. Prior to this, data was returned based on the number of incidents which occurred during that time period. As historic data has never been revised in this publication series, any incidents which occurred in a different time period to the date in which the incident was recorded will have been excluded from the returns.
Finally, there has been an increase since 2017-18 in the number and proportion of incidents where no information was recorded on the characteristics of the victim and/or the suspected perpetrator. Police Scotland advised that a procedural change was made just before 2017-18. In certain non-criminal incidents of domestic abuse (i.e. where both parties were believed to have an equal involvement), details were no longer recorded for a specific victim or a specific suspected perpetrator. Before this, two incidents may have been recorded treating one party as the victim and the other as the suspected perpetrator and the second for the reverse position.
In terms of geographical comparisons, definitional and legislative differences, as well as differences in counting practices mean that it is not possible to compare these statistics across national and international boundaries.
This data are from the same source and follow the same quality assurance processes as Domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland. Data is presented at a national (Scotland) level, across the 13 police divisions in Scotland (covering all 32 local authorities). Number of incidents of domestic abuse and rates per 10,000 population are also presented by local authority area. Mid-year population estimates from the National Records of Scotland are used. Data on the characteristics of the victim and suspected perpetrator is also provided including:
• age
• gender
• age and gender combined
• relationship between victim/suspected perpetrator
• circumstances associated with the incident, such as when and where the incidents occurred
The details of characteristics of victim and suspected perpetrator are provided in the publication bulletin.
These statistics are a primary source of information relating to the characteristics of victims and suspected perpetrators of domestic abuse incidents recorded by the police in Scotland. This data provides information about trends in the number of incidents recorded by the police. Domestic abuse recorded by the police does not reveal the true incidence of all domestic abuse in Scotland, as not all incidents are reported to the police. There are a number of reasons for domestic abuse being under reported, including victims experiencing fear and shame as a result of the incident. Under reporting may also be caused by a perpetrator physically preventing a victim reporting the domestic abuse. This data is used in conjunction with findings on partner abuse from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey to inform evidence-based policy.
This data covers incidents recorded over 12 months between 1 April to 31 March, from 2016/17 to 2022/23.
The statistical bulletin is published approximately eight months after the end of the year in question. This is to allow Police Scotland’s statisticians to collate the required information, as well as the time needed to allow for quality checking the data. The publication date is advertised four to six weeks in advance on the Scottish Government’s Official Statistics: forthcoming publication calendar.
The datasets here will be updated soon after the bulletin’s publication date.
These figures are not routinely revised, however any changes or corrections made to previously published data are suitably explained in line with the Scottish Government’s guidance on Producing Official Statistics.
This is a linked data resource: it has a permanent unique uri at which both humans and machines can find it on the Internet, and which can be used an identifier in queries on our SPARQL endpoint.
A linked data-orientated view of dimensions and values
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Reference Area
http://purl.org/linked-data/sdmx/2009/dimension#refArea
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Reference Period
http://purl.org/linked-data/sdmx/2009/dimension#refPeriod
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Measure Type
http://purl.org/linked-data/cube#measureType
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(not locked to a value) |
Linked Data is stored in graphs. We keep dataset contents (the data) separately from the metadata, to make it easier for you to find exactly what you need.
The data in this dataset are stored in the graph: http://statistics.gov.scot/graph/domestic-abuse-recorded-by-the-police-incidents-with-a-crime-or-offence
The data structure definition for this data cube dataset is stored in the same graph as the data: http://statistics.gov.scot/graph/domestic-abuse-recorded-by-the-police-incidents-with-a-crime-or-offence
All other metadata about this dataset are stored in the graph: http://statistics.gov.scot/graph/domestic-abuse-recorded-by-the-police-incidents-with-a-crime-or-offence/metadata
A breakdown by type of the 240 resources in this dataset's data graph.
| Resource type | Number of resources |
|---|---|
| Collection | 2 |
| Component specification | 5 |
| Data set | 1 |
| Data structure definition | 1 |
| Observation | 231 |
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