Who is affected by crime?
The chances of being a victim of a crime are not the same for every person. People from some groups are more likely to be victims of crime than others.
The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2019/2020 shows these statistics for crime:
- 3.1% of men experienced violent crime compared to 2% of women
- 5.4% of 16-24-year-olds experienced crime compared to 0.6% of people aged 60+ years
- 5.3% of people in the 15% most deprived areas experienced crime compared to 2.1% for the rest of Scotland
- 2.8% of people in urban areas experienced crime compared to 1.4% in rural areas
For property crime the pattern is similar e.g. 14% of 16-24-year-olds experienced property crime compared to 6.4% of people aged 60+ years.
Most adults (88.1%) experienced no crime in 2019/20. The SCJS estimates that the proportion of adults experiencing crime has fallen from 20.4% in 2008/09 to 11.9% in 2019/20.
In 2019/20, 10.0% of adults were estimated to have been a victim of property crime, down from 18.0% in 2008/9, and 2.5% of adults had been a victim of violent crime, down from 4.1% in 2008/09.