More victims are reporting sexual crime and rape to police in Scotland, new figures have revealed.
But reports of non-sexual crimes of violence and domestic abuse incidents have fallen according to the first annual report from Scotland’s single police force.
Detective Chief Superintendent Lesley Boal said: “Earlier this year we embarked on a campaign called ‘We Can Stop It’ which was aimed at providing messages to men around what constitutes rape and the issue of consent.
“The basic message is sex without consent is rape and responsibility for rape will always lie with the rapist.
“My message to communities is clear: if you are a victim of sexual assault, rape or domestic abuse, please report it to us.
“If you are a male and are unsure whether someone has given consent, assume they have not.”
There were 8,604 sexual crimes recorded by Police Scotland during 2013/1014, an increase of 911 from the previous year.
Police received reports of 1,690 rapes, an increase of 23.2%.
Historic cases accounted for 36% of all reported rapes and a quarter of all sexual crime reported to police was historic.
Chief Constable Sir Stephen House said: “We said from the outset of the single service that such crimes were under-reported and that we wanted to instil confidence in those who suffer at the hands of sexual offenders or domestic abusers.
“Measures were put in place to ensure that not only could victims have the confidence to be able to come forward and report to us but that those who offend in this way would be targeted in a more consistent and targeted way.”
Mr House said that overall crime fell by just under 1% with a slight increase of 0.2% in the detection rate.
Crimes of violence including attempted murder, serious and common assault and robbery all decreased.
The number of murders reported remained static at 56 cases and violent crime decreased by 10% in total.
There was a slight decrease in domestic abuse related crime reported, however the proportion of these incidents which resulted in a crime report increased by 6.3%.