Between 2006 and 2016, the number of homicides fell by 56 percent in Glasgow alone. And across Scotland as a whole, the homicide rate dropped by more than a third.
Léa Marchal
Production: By Europod, in co-production with Sphera Network.
EUobserver is proud to have an editorial partnership with Europod to co-publish the podcast series “Briefed” hosted by Léa Marchal. The podcast is available on all major platforms.
Find the full transcript below:
Twenty years ago, Scotland was one of the most violent places in the developed world. Today, it has one of the lowest crime rates in Europe.
How did Scotland turn things around, and what lessons can the rest of Europe learn from this success story?
If you were living in Scotland in the early 2000s, you were three times more likely to be assaulted than someone living in the United States. Much of the violence was driven by gang activity.
But Scotland eventually tackled the problem head-on and succeeded in reducing violent crime dramatically.
Between 2006 and 2016, the number of homicides fell by 56 percent in Glasgow alone. Across Scotland as a whole, the homicide rate dropped by more than one third.
How did they do it?
They started treating violence as a public health issue. That’s what the BBC explains in a long-form article published on Monday, 29 June.
The author, Eve Livingston, describes how it all began with unusual court sessions. Instead of facing judges, gang members listened to victims and witnesses, who, one after another, described the personal impact that violent crime had had on their lives.
Around 470 gang members took part in these sessions. The results were striking: more than 400 of them later called a support hotline they had been given to help them leave gang life behind.
At the same time, Scotland created a Violence Reduction Unit, which focused heavily on prevention and early intervention.
Peer support groups, educational programmes, partnerships with social workers, doctors and teachers…
The approach wasn’t invented from scratch. It was inspired by programmes developed in parts of the United States in the 1970s and then adapted to Scotland’s specific circumstances.
The result was a dramatic decline in violence. Today, Scotland ranks around the middle of European countries for homicide rates, below both Sweden and France.
So, how does the rest of Europe compare?
Crime has generally fallen across Europe over the past two decades. But since 2021, intentional homicides, sexual violence and corruption have all been increasing slowly but steadily.
In recent years, prison populations have also grown. We covered Europe’s prison crisis in a previous episode of Briefed—you’ll find the link in the description.
Meanwhile, the principle of restorative justice—which focuses on offender accountability, mediation and repairing the harm caused by crime—has also gained ground in parts of Europe.
Several countries have introduced victim-offender mediation into their justice systems. In France, for example, convicted offenders can apply to take part in a restorative justice programme. In Finland, the practice has been widely used since the early 2000s.
But these initiatives are often voluntary and remain far from widespread across the continent.
At a time when prison overcrowding is becoming a growing challenge and concerns about public safety are rising in many large cities, Scotland’s example could offer valuable inspiration to EU member states in the way they tackle crime.
