Crime: Who, where and when?
Crime is more likely to be committed by certain groups of people in society.
Crime is also more likely to happen at certain times of the day/week and in certain parts of the country.
Who commits crime?
Statistics show that some groups of people are more likely to commit crime than others. People are more likely to commit crime if they are:
- Younger鈥- The peak age for criminal convictions is around 21-25 for males and around 26-30 for females. For offences (minor crimes e.g. anti-social behaviour) the peak age is lower for both males and females.
- Male鈥 Most crime, over 80%, is committed by men. In 2022, the Scottish Government statistics stated only one-in-six people convicted of a crime were female (17%).
- Living in a deprived urban area鈥 Most crime happens in big cities. The local authority areas of Dundee, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh had the highest number of recorded crimes in Scotland in 2022-23 (Source: Scottish Government). Within each of these cities, criminality rates vary - the most deprived urban areas consistently have more people involved in crime than those in the least deprived areas.
Who is affected by crime?
The chances of being a victim of a crime are not the same for every person. Some people are more likely to be victims of crime than others.
Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2019/2020 statistics for violent crime:
- 3.1% of men experienced violent crime compared to 2% of women
- 5.4% of 16-24-year-olds experienced crime compared to 0.6% of people aged 60+ years
- 5.3% of people in the 15% most deprived areas experienced crime compared to 2.1% for the rest of Scotland
- 2.8% of people in urban areas experienced crime compared to 1.4% in rural areas
For property crime the pattern is similar e.g. 14% of 16-24-year-olds experienced property crime, compared to 6.4% of people aged 60+ years.
Where and when do crimes happens?
Violent crime is most likely to happen in or near a victim鈥檚 place of work (32%), followed by inside a victim鈥檚 home (20%), and immediately outside a victim鈥檚 home (13%). Just over half (53%) of violent crimes take place during the week, compared to 47% at the weekend.
For property crime, two-thirds (66%) took place in and around the victim鈥檚 home with 67% occurring during the week and 33% at weekends.
The above information is from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2019/20.