Scottish Government

Reduce crime victimisation rates

DESCRIPTION:

Estimates the proportion of people in Scotland who have been the victim of one or more crimes in the past year, as measured by the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey ( SCJS).

Crime victimisation rates measure the incidence of personal and household crimes - as perceived by victims of crime themselves, rather than police records of reported crimes. A high victimisation rate suggests an unsafe community, which impacts on people's quality of life and may deter public and private improvements or investment and reduce the residential desirability of an area.

SOURCE:

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey ( SCJS)

The crime survey in Scotland was conducted as part of the British Crime Survey in 1982 and 1988. From 1993 to 2003 a Scotland specific survey was conducted under the title 'Scottish Crime Survey' ( SCS) and then as the 'Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey'( SCVS) in 2004 and 2006. After 2008 the crime survey in Scotland ran continuously under the title 'Scottish Crime and Justice Survey' ( SCJS) with a larger sample size. Data will be available biennially from November 2011. Each survey report provides more detail about the recall periods:

Scottish Crime and Justice Survey ( SCJS)

2010/11: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00943

2009/10: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/11/01090437/0

2008/09: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/12/14120636/0

Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey ( SCVS)

2006: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/10/12094216/0

2004: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/01/16115536/0

Scottish Crime Survey ( SCS)

2003: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/12/20379/48077

2000: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2002/05/14407/1405

1996: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/1998/12/5d2711f3-543b-4a34-9973-05bbba9e202e

1993: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/1999/01/66575548-b5a9-441f-834a-da44182da2af

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey is designated as a National Statistic.

Overall victimisation rates for personal and household crime as measured by the SCJS are available annually from September 2009. Reports are available from the publications section of the Scottish Government website: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent. The SCJS dataset will be held on the UK Data Archive http://www.data-archive.ac.uk

Scotland's crime survey, the SCJS, measures crime by interviewing a representative sample of Scotland's population about their experiences of crime in the past year. The survey includes crime reported and not reported to the police (and therefore will not be in the crime statistics recorded by the police), providing a more accurate estimate of the extent of victimisation in Scotland of crimes covered by the survey.

The SCJS uses a pre-selected sample which aims to be representative of households in Scotland and at Police Force Area level and at Community Justice Authority level. The target sample (from 2010/11) is 13,000 interviews per annum and interviews are conducted face-to-face using CAPI (
Computer Assisted Personal Interview) and CASI (Computer-Assisted Self Interview) for sensitive topics.

Estimates of the prevalence of victimisation will be produced using weighted analysis of survey data, along with 95% confidence intervals to give indications of the accuracy of the estimates.

Full details are available in the SCJS Technical Report, available from the publications section of the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey website:

http://scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Publications/publications

Estimates for time periods before 2008/09 are not directly comparable to figures from 2008/09 forwards due to the change to continuous fieldwork sampling as opposed to sampling at fixed intervals.

Data on past trends are drawn from a number of Scottish Crime Surveys. For 1992- 2003, data on victimisation was collected from respondents who were asked to think about their experiences in the previous calendar year.

For 2004-6, data on victimisation was collected from respondents who were asked to think about their experiences in the previous financial year.

DEFINITIONS:

Victimisation: where an individual or household has been the victim of a crime.

Personal crime: Crimes where the person is victimised, covering personal theft, robbery, threats, sexual offences, attempted assault, minor assault (assault involving no or negligible injury) and serious assault (assault involving more serious injury).

Household crime: Crimes where the household is victimised, covering housebreaking, theft of and from motor vehicles, other household theft, theft from a dwelling/theft from outside a dwelling, bicycle theft, and vandalism of property (including motor vehicles).

Overall personal and household victimisation rates: for the purposes of this indicator, this refers to the proportion of people who have been a victim of one or more crimes counted by the survey during the previous year (the prevalence of victimisation).

BASELINE AND PAST TRENDS:

The baseline year is 2008/09 as this data point is the closest to the start of the first term of the current administration. The baseline figure is 20.4%.

Proportion of Scottish Crime Survey respondents who were a victim of one or more crimes:

CRITERIA FOR RECENT CHANGE ARROW:

This evaluation is based on: any difference within +/- 1 percentage point of the previous survey suggests that the position is more likely to be maintaining than showing any change. A decrease of 1 percentage point or more suggests the position is improving; whereas an increase of 1 percentage point or more suggests the position is worsening.

For information on general methodological approach, please click here.

FUTURE ISSUES OR REVIEWS:

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey uses a rolling recall period, asking interviewees about their experiences in the 12 months immediately before the survey interview. This differs from previous crime surveys, which used fixed recall periods (either calendar or financial years). As a result, SCJS victimisation data may not be directly comparable with data collected in previous surveys. Work is being undertaken on developing a methodology to allow comparison of SCJS estimates of victimisation with existing survey data.

ASSOCIATED TARGET:

None.