JUST a few thousand people were the victims of three-fifths of violent crime in Scotland last year, despite a sharp fall in crime overall, according to the latest survey.
All types of crime fell 16 per cent between 2016-17 and 2017-18, with the level at its lowest for 40 years and violent crime almost halved over the last decade.
But the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey also highlighted how most violent crime was endured by a tiny proportion of the population, a problem known as “repeat victimisation”.
The survey of 5500 people also suggested one in nine Scots was the victim of stalking or harassment in the last year, with almost a fifth of young people affected.
In two-thirds of cases the harassment was unwanted text, email and social media messages.
But 4% of victims said intimate pictures had been shared without their permission, 10% said they had been followed and 11% had spotted someone loitering outside their home.
And while around half of all victims knew the perpetrator in some way, in two fifths of cases (41%) the offender was someone they had never seen before.
In 2017-18, around 87.5% of Scotland’s 4.5m adults experienced no crime at all, but 0.5%, around 22,500, people experience five crimes or more, down from 1.5% in 2008-09.
The proportion of adults experiencing violent crime fell was 2.3% last year, down from 2.9% the previous year and 4.1% in 2008-09.
Around two-thirds of violent crimes were classed minor assaults with no or negligible injury.
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The most common age of victims was 16-24, with adults in the poorest 15% of Scotland were twice as likely to be victims of violence than those living in other communities.
But around 0.7% of the population experienced 59% of all violent crime, with 0.1%, fewer than 5000 people, experiencing five or more violent crimes last year, or 20% of the total.
Since the age of 16, around 3.6% of adults in Scotland have experienced at least one type of serious sexual assault, with 6.2% or women and 0.8% men reporting an attack.
Of those who had experienced forced sexual intercourse since the age of 16, almost a third (31%) said they had experienced “too many incidents to count”.
Less than a quarter (23%) reported their only or most recent forced intercourse to the police, with 38% saying they did not do so for “fear of making matters worse”.
More than half of respondents (56%) said the perpetrator had been their partner.
One in six adults had experienced at least one incident of partner abuse since the age of 16.
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The survey, which includes crimes not reported to the police, found property crime was the more common offence, accounting for 71% of all 602,000 crimes last year.
Within this, vandalism was the most common crime, followed by household and bicycle theft, motor theft, housebreaking and personal theft.
Violent crime account for the other 29% of offences, with minor assault the most common.
Victim rates were lower than in England and Wales.
The proportion of violent crimes involving perpetrators being under the influence alcohol rose slightly from 42% to 46% last year, but the level is down from 63% a decade ago.
However victims reported a sharp rise in the number of perpetrators under the influence of drugs, up from 22% to 36% in a year, compared to 29% in 2008-09.
The percentage of people reported using illicit drugs in the last 12 months also rose, from 6% in 2016-17 to 7.4% in 2017-18, with cannabis involved in 70% of cases.
Almost half (44%) of respondents said they first tried an illicit drug between 16 and 19.
SNP Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “Given Scotland’s sustained commitment to prevention, responsive policing and local partnerships, I welcome these encouraging findings on long-term crime trends and how safe people feel in their communities.
“Tackling alcohol-related harm has been a pivotal part of our pioneering public health approach to reducing violent crime over the last decade and it is heartening to see a fall in alcohol-related violence.
“I remain concerned about the level of repeat victimisation, and that people in the most deprived communities are more likely to experience violence. While these findings are not new, we must not simply accept them as a ‘fact of life’, and we will continue our work to further understand and reduce violence wherever it persists.
“Soon we will publish the findings from research into serious assault crimes and repeat violent victimisation to help police, local and national government and other agencies as we work together to make all of Scotland’s communities safer for everyone.”
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