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VIOLENCE IN SCOTLAND: FINDINGS FROM THE 2000 SCOTTISH CRIME SURVEY
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
This report presents the findings on violent crime from the 2000 Scottish Crime Survey (SCS). The SCS measures crimes directly experienced by people living in private households. The 2000 SCS is the fifth survey of its kind to be carried out in Scotland since the early 1980s. The first two sweeps in 1982 and 1988 were conducted as part of the British Crime Survey and only covered Central and Southern Scotland. A separate SCS was introduced in 1993 which covered the whole of mainland Scotland, including the larger islands. This was repeated in 1996 and 2000.
This report aims to answer the following key questions about violent crime in Scotland:
- How much violent crime is there in Scotland?
- Who is at most risk of violent crime?
- When and where do violent incidents occur?
- Who commits violent crime?
- What types of force and weapons are used?
- How much violence results in injury?
- What impact does violent crime have on victims?
- How much do people worry about violent crime?
- What do people do to protect themselves?
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DATA
Violent crimes are more difficult to quantify than crimes such as theft. This is partly because they are less common, and therefore more difficult to estimate precisely in the survey. Also, there may be under-reporting if individuals do not consider themselves to be 'victims' (such as in cases of pub brawls, or incidents where no actual injury resulted). In addition, victims may not disclose incidents of domestic violence and some types of violence may be regarded as too sensitive to report. Incidents of rape and other sexual assaults are not included in the analysis presented here, because household surveys like the SCS are unlikely to provide valid estimates.
In this report 'violent crimes' comprise all incidents of assault, robbery and snatch theft. 'Assault' comprises incidents where serious or other wounding was intentionally inflicted, and actual or attempted common assault resulting in slight injury or no injury. 'Robbery' refers to actual or attempted theft of property from the person, accompanied by force or threat of force. 'Snatch thefts' are thefts from the person which involve some element of force as well as speed (e.g. pulling a handbag off a victim's shoulder). Threats are excluded from 'violent crime' in this report.
In statistical terms there was a small number of cases of violence 1, most of which were incidents of common assault. Therefore, care must be taken when examining their characteristics and generalising from the results. When the data are disaggregated into sub-groups (for example, by gender), the confidence with which we can generalise is reduced further.
The sample sizes reported are as above, unless otherwise specified. Non-responses and 'Don't know' have been excluded from the analysis unless otherwise specified. All data have been weighted and include responses from the whole of Scotland. Differences which are indicated to be significant are at the 95% level of confidence or greater.
Respondents were asked about their experience of violent crime in the previous year. The information in this report therefore relates to violent crime during 1999.
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