Sexual crime in Dundee has rocketed by 60% in a year, shock new statistics have revealed.
Figures released by Police Scotland show the number of reported rapes alone in the city has soared by 44%. Violent crime has also increased by 16%.
Dundee-based MSP Jenny Marra says work must be done to find out why violent crime is rising in the city when it isn’t in other parts of the country.
The statistics illustrate a trend of an increasing number of reports of sexual and violent crime across Tayside year on year, with sex crime up 21% in Perth and Kinross and violence rising by 46% in Angus.
As previously reported in The Courier, incidences of robbery and assault with intent to rob have also dramatically increased across Angus, with 244% more crimes reported in 2014/15 than the previous year.
However, detection rates for all of those crimes have also increased.
Across Scotland sex offences rose by just 9% while violent crime actually fell by 6%. Those crimes also fell significantly in Fife, where incidents of a violent and sexual nature were down by 14% and 18% respectively.
Police Scotland said it had introduced new ways of tackling sexual crimes and had worked to build confidence in victims to come forward.
Many of the crimes are historic and were reported in the wake of high-profile investigations such as the Jimmy Savile case.
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