Non-sexual violent crimes up by 7% in March compared with last year

Non-sexual violent crimes were 7% higher in March 2022 than the same month last year, statistics for incidents which were recorded by the police show.

However there was a 2% reduction in the overall number of crimes recorded, going from 19,148 in March 2021 to 18,775 last month.

The figure for non-sexual crimes of violence in March 2022 also represented a 21% rise from March 2020.

A statistical report released on Thursday said this is mainly due to a rise in crimes of threats and extortion, of which cybercrimes make up the bulk of cases.

A total of 852 non-sexual crimes of violence were recorded in March 2022.

The report noted: “Whilst the restrictions put in place to limit the spread of (coronavirus) will have had an impact on the number of recorded crimes and offences, some caution is advised before necessarily attributing all of the changes to this situation.

“For example, longer-term trends in some types of offending, which existed prior to the pandemic, may remain a factor.”

The monthly statistical release was first introduced during the pandemic, however it is now being replaced with a quarterly publication.

The Scottish Conservatives said the violent crime figures for the 2021/22 year were the worst in a decade.

Jamie Greene MSP said: “These damning figures paint a shocking picture of the level of violent crime in Scotland.

“The first purpose of any government is to ensure that the public are being kept safe, but Nicola Sturgeon has completely failed to do so.

“Violent crime has now hit its highest level during her tenure as First Minister.”

He continued: “Instead of standing up for public safety, or the victims of crime, the SNP would rather wrap criminals in cotton wool by handing out free mobiles to prisoners and automatically releasing them halfway through their sentence.

“Meanwhile, our police are being left to pick up the pieces with fewer local police officers as a result of the SNP’s police merger, as well as being hit with a real-terms cut to their capital budget.”