News

New figures from the Scottish Government show record levels of sexual crime

Clear and urgent need to expand prevention work with young people.

· 26% increase in sexual crimes between 2013-14 and 2016-17.

· Rapes in Scotland have risen by 4% in the past year to 1,755, and attempted rapes by 5%.

The Scottish Government has today published statistics on Recorded Crime in Scotland for 2016-17. Although reported crime overall has gone down, sexual crimes continue to rise. Part of the reason for this is a dramatic rise in the number of offences in the ‘Other Sexual Offences’ category, which is one of four categories Police Scotland use to record sexual crimes, and is made up of a wide range of sexual crimes. ‘Other sexual crimes’ accounted for 40% of sexual crimes in 2016-17, ahead of ‘Sexual assault’ (almost 40%) and ‘Rape & attempted rape’ (17%).

A separate report focusing on ‘Other sexual crimes’ and highlighting the significant rise in these between 2013-14 and 2016-17 has also been published to accompany the broader report and to look at this area in more detail. The report highlights the high prevalence of sexual crime being experienced by young women under the age of 16.