Glasgow’s crime rate of 1,306 per 10 thousand people was the highest of any region of Scotland in 2018/19. The rate for the whole of Scotland was 909 per 10 thousand people, which appears to be driven by low crime in places such as the Orkney Islands, with almost all Scottish cities reporting higher than average crime rates.

South of the border
Although the overall crime rate in England and Wales has increased in recent years, Scotland has experienced a decline. The autonomy Scotland enjoys from the rest of the UK has enabled it to pursue a different approach to crime, treating it as a public-health issue rather than simply as a police enforcement problem.

A continuing trend?
There was a slight uptick in the number of crimes recorded by the Scottish police in 2017/18, when compared with the previous year, with approximately 6 thousand more offences. Whether or not Scotland will soon have to contend with dramatic rise in crime seen in England and Wales remains to be seen.