On 16 June 2020, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2018-19 was published. (An updated version, which supersedes the original, was published in October 2020.) The report covers 5,537 interviews conducted between April 2018 and May 2019 and presents statistics on the extent of crime in Scotland, importantly including crime that is not reported to the police, although does not cover all crime types*.

It found that the volume of crime in Scotland, including incidents not reported to the police, fell by 45% over the last decade and by 20% since 2016/17.  The proportion of adults experiencing crime decreased from one-in-five to one-in-eight between 2008/09 and 2018/19. Consistent with previous years, the majority of violent incidents - which made up 29% of all crimes - were cases of minor assault resulting in no or negligible injury (60%), with instances of serious assault (7%) and robbery (3%) remaining relatively uncommon.

Victims of two or more incidents (3.5% of adults) accounted for over half (55%) of all crime in 2018/19, with repeat victims of violence (0.7% adults) estimated to have experienced three-fifths (60%) of all violent crime in 2018/19.

It found that the the likelihood of being a victim of any crime in 2018/19 was higher for those living in the most deprived areas of Scotland, and that violent crime continues to be experienced disproportionately among some groups in the population. 

*experiences of sexual offences are not included in the main estimates