Talking-up Scotland

https://beta.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2016-17/pages/4/

In the Scotsman today, after several paragraphs bemoaning the statistically non-significant 1% increase in 2017/18 and giving a generous platform to Unionist ‘justice spokesmen’, they got round to these, fine for my purposes here, if at times, grammatically incorrect, paragraphs:

Meanwhile, separate research published yesterday by the Scottish Government showed the number of muggings have [sic] more than halved over the past decade, and that teenagers and people in their 20s are much less likely to commit a robbery or be a victim of one.

Robbery in public settings by strangers has fallen from 2,080 in 2008-9 to 860 in 2017-18. The use of a bladed weapon in robbery has also dropped from an estimated 1,270 to 550 over the same period.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “Scotland’s streets are now safer and less violent than they were a decade ago. While any small rise in crime is disappointing, we remain focused with the police and other partners on keeping crime at historically low levels.”

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/crime-levels-rise-for-first-time-in-more-than-a-decade-1-4805343

For evidence explaining, at least in part, Scotland’s falling crime, see:

As knife and gun crime rockets across England and Wales and falls in Scotland, Scotland has far more police officers per head of population

As major global cities like London struggle with pollution, levels in Scotland have dropped by more than 66% since 1990. Has this contributed to falling crime levels too?