DOMESTIC abuse investigators have uncovered hundreds of alleged serious sex crimes that would never previously have been reported.
It comes as the number of rapes recorded in Scotland has gone up by around one-third under the new national force, which began operations in April last year.
Nearly 1300 of the alleged crimes were recorded between April and December 2013, almost as many as in the whole of the previous year. Overall, sex crime was up too, by 16%, according to figures published by the force's oversight body, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).
Police Scotland chief constable Sir Stephen House yesterday attributed some of the rise to more thorough investigations of domestic incidents.
Sir Stephen told a full meeting of the SPA in Glenrothes, Fife, yesterday that almost 400 alleged sexual offences were uncovered in the context of such cases.
He said: "This is one of the reasons we have seen a rise of rape reports of 38% this year. There are other factors too, of course.
"If officers are at a domestic abuse incident and they ask the victim - stereotypically a woman assaulted by a male partner - she will say she has been, say, slapped.
"She is not going to say she has been the subjects of rapes for 10 years."
However, the same victim, he said, may volunteer such information if she is later asked about it.
Officers now routinely follow up domestic abuse cases, a major focus for both police and prosecutors, to see if there has been a sexual crime.
Police also attribute the rise in rape reporting to growing confidence among women and - especially for historic allegations - to the "Jimmy Savile" effect.
Sandy Brindley, National Co-ordinator for Rape Crisis Scotland said: "It is certainly true that victims now have more confidence in the police, thanks to the efforts that have been made to increase reporting, and that will have had an impact on the figures," she said. "But it is also likely there are more of these crimes taking place."
There were 1293 alleged rapes recorded from April to December 2013, compared with 1372 in the 12 months up to April 2013.
Police stressed their detection rate for the crime, when they are satisfied they know who committed it even if prosecutors cannot secure a conviction, has risen.
This accounted for almost three-quarters of the alleged rapes, a rise of nearly 11% on the same period in 2012.
New figures released by the SPA also showed the number of people killed or seriously injured on roads had dropped to 1368 between April and December 2013, a 19% year-on-year drop.
Meanwhile, Sir Stephen denied reports that mobile speed camera vans were being used to "tax" people by issuing speed tickets. "We don't even get to keep the money, which goes to the Treasury," he said. "I don't think it is accurate to say the vans are being used to make money."
l A High Court judge in London yesterday approved a compensation scheme for victims of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile. The scheme has been agreed between executors of the former Top of the Pops presenter's estate and lawyers for 140 alleged victims.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article