Despite a substantial increase in crimes such as serious assault, rape and vandalism from 1997 until 2007, released by the Scottish Government, Chief Constable Peter Wilson has said that in the last few years the numbers have been dropping.

Mr Wilson said: "I would re-enforce that 10 years is only a snapshot, and especially over the last four years the figures have started to come down.

"Where the volume of crime has gone up, much of it is related to the area of anti-social behaviour.

"While we have made significant progress in reducing acquisitive crime such as vehicle thefts and housebreaking, much more needs to be done to deal with the marked increase in the amount of vandalism and anti-social behaviour crime recorded."

Figures of recorded crime were released by the Scottish Government at the request of Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser on Friday, and showed a near 25 per cent increase overall in Fife.

However, the figures also show that non-sexual crimes of violence is the lowest it has been in eight years, and while rapes have more than doubled since 1997, again last year's recorded rape is the lowest in the past four years.

Mr Wilson added that while the force is working hard on measures of crime prevention, much of the steep rise in assaults are committed in a domestic setting.

"Many of these serious assaults happen in the home and are domestic, which is why we have been working with the domestic abuse partnership in tackling that.

"Our main area of concern is about public safety, and we are currently doing a lot of work in that area.''

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