Extent of rich poor divide revealed in Scottish homicide study
5 May 2010
Scotsmen under the age of 65, living in deprived neighbourhoods are 32 times as likely to die from assault than their richer countrymen, at a rate of 110 per million, compared to just 3 per million for men living in more affluent areas, according to new research from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (CSO).
The study, which analysed over 25 years' worth of data from 1980 to 2005, looked at the social patterning of deaths due to assault in Scotland to see how much of a role individual socioeconomic status and local deprivation play. The contribution of knives and other sharp weapons in these deaths was also examined as part of the research.
Analysis of death records from the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) showed that the male mortality rate due to assault, which includes knives or sharp objects, increased by 75 per cent from 20 to 35 per million, whilst the rate involving just knives or sharp instruments doubled to 20 per million. An increase in deaths due to assault was most pronounced for those aged 15 to 44, increasing from 27 to 57 per million, and for death by a sharp weapon, increasing from 16 to 40 per million.
Social inequalities played a large factor in Scottish deaths due to assault, with numbers far exceeding those in other high income European countries. The mortality rate in men working in routine jobs, such as factory work, was 127 per million, nearly 12 times higher than those in higher managerial and professional occupations.
Author of the research Alastair Leyland from the Medical Research Council said:
“We know that Scotland has a high proportion of deprived areas which will play some part in the particularly high Scottish rates of deaths by assault. Even taking this into consideration, these figures paint a grim picture. The differences we see now in death rates due to assault between affluent and deprived groups are much greater than those that have been reported before. Reducing deaths and inequalities, particularly among young men, depends on addressing the problem of deprivation, as well as targeting known contributors such as alcohol misuse, the carrying of knives and gang culture.”
Kenny MacAskill, Cabinet Secretary for Justice, said:
“This research highlights why we need a complete change in attitude to Scotland’s blade culture as frequently it is the poorest in our society who are most affected by such crimes. The Scottish Government has invested £1.6 million in the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) to tackle gangs in the worst-affected areas in Glasgow which led to a 50 per cent reduction in violence amongst those involved.
“The Scottish Government has also reinvested £13 million, taken off criminals through our Cashback scheme, and spent it on initiatives to divert youngsters from a life of crime.
“We have been taking tough action on those who carry and use knives as well as delivering a record number of police officers to catch them; recorded crime in Scotland is at its lowest level for nearly 30 years.”
Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan QPM, head of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, said:
“This study confirms everything we have been saying for the past five years. Reducing violence isn’t simply a question of taking knives off people; we have had changes in policy including the licensing of the sale of non-domestic knives and a ban on the sale of all long pointed kitchen knives, but people still carry and use knives. To have any real impact on knife-related crime long term we need to tackle the underlying problems as well as the obvious ones.”
Throughout Scotland it has been estimated that violence costs the Scottish economy around £3 billion each year in healthcare, law enforcement and lost productivity.
The study, ‘The social patterning of deaths due to assault in Scotland, 1980-2005; population based study’, by the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU), was co-funded by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of the Scottish Government Health Directorates. It was published in BMJ’s Epidemiology and Community Health Journal.
ENDS
For further information, contact the MRC Press Office on 0207 670 5302 or press.office@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
