Within the context of the ongoing cost crisis, this occasional paper explores the relationship between macroeconomic performance and crime in Scotland.
This occasional paper explores the relationship between macroeconomic performance and crime. It first presents a summary of the academic literature on a range of economic variables and crime, specifically in relation to previous periods of economic downturn. Emergent themes from the literature are then further explored using the latest crime statistics to monitor trends during this current period of cost crisis.
The central focus of this first occasional paper is economic performance and crimes against property, including acquisitive crime. A second paper will follow the publication of the 2021/22 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey and will further consider violent crime and domestic abuse, in addition to revisiting the crime types identified in this paper.