Violent convictions have increased by 5 percent over the last year, rape convictions have increased by 8 percent and sexual assault convictions are up by 14 percent, according to statistics released today.
The Criminal Proceeding Scotland 2017-2018, shows that a total of 95,254 people were proceeded against in court last year. This is a fall of eleven per cent over the last year, with convictions also falling by 10 percent.
At the same time criminal reports fell by only 9 percent, indicating that proceedings and convictions fell faster than criminal reports.
The figures also show that almost one in five waiting for trial, breached their bail conditions.
Longer term, however, since the SNP have been in power, conviction rates are down by 2 percent since 2008-9 and conviction rates for sexual assault are also down 16 percent over the same period.
The Scottish Conservatives have said that these figures are a worrying insight into the increasing levels of violent and sexual crime and the SNP’s failure to manage our justice system.
Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said;
“These figures are a worrying insight into the increasing levels of violent and sexual crime and demonstrate again the SNP’s inability to manage our justice system.
“It is extremely worrying that convictions for violent crime, sexual assault and rape have all increased when convictions overall have decreased.
“In addition, one fifth of those out on bail are breaching their bail conditions, leading to other, avoidable and sometimes tragic crimes.
“The SNP is presiding over chaos in our courts and a police force without enough frontline staff to catch and investigate alleged criminals.
“It’s clear that the SNP’s soft touch justice approach is doing nothing to tackle this rise in violent and serious crime.”
And specifically on youth convictions, Liam Kerr said;
“The SNP should be careful about celebrating a fall in youth convictions.
“As senior legal professionals have warned Humza Yousaf in the past, this tells us more about the strain in our prosecution service than the amount of crime being committed.
“The SNP should focus on tackling rising crime and falling conviction rates rather than spinning figures to the press.”
