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2. Key Points
- In 2004/05, there were 137 victims of the 134 homicide cases recorded by the police, 29 more victims than in 2003/04 and the highest annual total since 1995/96 (150 victims including the 17 victims of the Dunblane shootings). This represented a rate of 27 victims per million population.
- The overall homicide rate in 2004/05 for males (45 victims per million population) was over four times the rate for females (10 per million population). The highest homicide rates for males were in the under 1 and 21 to 29 age groups (145 and 116 victims per million population respectively); the highest rate for females was in the 16 to 20 age group (19 victims per million population).
- For most of the 137 victims in 2004/05, the main accused was known to them; 19 per cent were presumed to have been killed by a partner or other relative, 55 per cent by an acquaintance and 18 per cent by a stranger. For the remaining 8 per cent of victims the relationship was unknown or no accused person had yet been identified.
- As for previous years, the use of a sharp instrument was the most common method of killing in 2004/05, accounting for 72 victims (53 per cent of the total). This was the highest figure recorded in the last ten years, and accounted for over half of the overall increase between 2003/04 and 2004/05 in the number of homicide victims.
- In 2004/05, 11 victims (8 per cent of the total) were reported to have been killed in a drug-related homicides; none in a racially motivated homicide; and one in a homicide with a homophobic motivation.
- At 28 November 2005, 189 persons had been accused of the homicides recorded in 2004/05, the highest number since 1995/96. Eighty-nine per cent of the accused were male.
- Fifty-five per cent of the 134 homicide cases recorded in 2004/05 have so far (at 28 November 2005) resulted in a conviction for murder (44 cases) or culpable homicide (30 cases). Fifty individual accused persons have been convicted of murder and 42 of culpable homicide in these cases.
- Of the 106 accused persons in homicide cases recorded in 2004/05 whose drink/drug status was known at the time of the homicide (56 per cent of all accused), 46 per cent were drunk, 15 per cent were on drugs and 10 per cent were drunk and on drugs.
- In the ten year period 1995/96 to 2004/05, the local authority area with the highest average annual homicide rate was Glasgow City (53 victims per million population). This compared with an overall rate for Scotland of 22 victims per million. Over three-fifths (61 per cent) of homicide cases recorded in 2004/05 took place in the Strathclyde police force area.
- In the period 1995/96 and 2004/05, 43 per cent of homicides where the victim and main accused were both male aged 16-49, and where the main motive was a fight/rage/quarrel, took place at the weekend.
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