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Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 1998

NCJ Number
182575
Date Published
October 1999
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This bulletin reports on crimes and offenses recorded by the Scottish police during 1998 in which a firearm was alleged to have been used or where a firearm was stolen.
Abstract
In 1998 the Scottish police recorded 985 offenses in which a firearm was alleged to have been used, the lowest figure recorded since 1989. Airweapons accounted for more than two-thirds of all offenses involving firearms, and were involved in 88 percent of the 650 offenses in which a firearm was actually fired. The use of firearms in criminal activity constituted only a small and decreasing proportion of all offenses recorded by police in 1998: 7 percent of homicides, 3 percent of attempted murders and less than 3 percent of robberies. Thirty percent of offenses involving the alleged use of a firearm occurred in a dwelling. Two percent occurred in banks, building societies, or post offices, and a further 33 percent occurred on public highways. The total number of offenses cleared up (where one or more persons were accused of the offense) decreased by 21 percent, from 541 offenses in 1997 to 430 in 1998, a clear-up rate of 44 percent. The police recorded 25 offenses in which a firearm other than an airweapon had been stolen, the lowest number recorded since that information was first collected in 1978. Figures, tables, appendixes