Serious violent crime has edged up again in Scotland after years of unrelenting decline.
The very latest police figures show a tiny rise for so-called "group one offences" - a category that includes serious assaults and robberies - for the first half of this financial year.
There were 3,345 Group One offences in the the financial year to date as of October 2, according to papers lodged on Wednesday with the Scottish Police Authority, the main civilian watchdog for the national force. That is up less than half a per cent from the same period of 20-14-15 at 3,203.
Analysis from the police said the "main driver" for the increase came from serious assaults, which were up by 279 in the period, nearly 18 per cent. However, force experts stressed that serious crime had to be viewed in the context of overall violence, including common assaults.
It said: "Analysis indicates that when all violent crimes are considered (i.e. the sum of Group one crimes of violence and crimes of Common Assault) the overall rise in violent crime in 2015/16 is not statistically significant at this time."
The big trend in recent years has been declining serious and minor violence but a rise in more complex cases, such as domestic violence.
Figures for domestic violence rose dramatically in the west as then Strathclyde Chief Constable Sir Stephen House reformed how the offence was dealt with - with far more incidents resulting in crimes being recorded. After a rise, figures began to fall in the old Strathclyde area. Sir Stephen expanded this strategy across after the national force was set up in 2013, leading to similar increases in recorded domestic violence elsewhere.
However, the latest figures show domestic violence falling nationwide, suggesting the rest of Scotland is now following the Strathclyde trend.
Police Scotland's Quarterly Performance Report, put before the SPA , said attributed the drop to a new nationwide toolkit for dealing with the offence.
It said: "The number of domestic abuse incidents recorded within Scotland decreased at the end of second quarter compared with the same period previous year by 5.3 per cent (1,625 incidents).
"There are varying local reasons for this but there is a widespread acknowledgement that one common factor is the effect of the implementation across Scotland of the Domestic Abuse Toolkit.
"Police Scotland’s detection rate for domestic abuse crimes and offences increased by 1.2 per cent to 83 per cent compared to the same period previous year."
Sex crimes continue to rise almost as steeply as violent crime had, until recently, been falling. The number - which includes prostitution offences as well as sexual assaults - was up 7.5 per cent in the year to date as of October 2.
The number of recorded rapes fell by 50 in the six months to 871, around two of out of five of which are "historic".
The police report said: "The detection rate for crimes of rape is currently 80 per cent.
"This is an increase of 11 per cent compared to the previous financial year. "The historic proportion of rape crimes (i.e. those crimes that are reported at least a year after being committed) has risen by six per cent on the same period last year to around 40 per cent of all reports."
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