« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
THE 2000 SCOTTISH CRIME SURVEY: OVERVIEW REPORT
Appendix D - Comparison Between the SCS and Police Recorded Crime Statistics
It is possible to make comparisons between six general offence groups: vandalism, housebreaking, theft of motor vehicles, bicycle theft, assault (comprising petty and serious assault) and robbery. Prior to the 1993 SCS, the category sexual assault was also included, but these data were considered too unreliable to make valid comparisons in the 1993 sweep.
Estimates of the total number of crimes in Scotland were obtained by grossing up the SCS crime rates. Personal crime rates were multiplied by a factor of 411.0956 for all Scotland and 346.9024 for central and southern Scotland (which represents the estimated number of adults aged 16 or over, divided by 10,000). Rates for household crime were multiplied by a factor of 218.5583 for all Scotland and 179.4870 for central and southern Scotland (which is the estimated number of households in 1995, divided by 10,000). The comparable factors for central and southern Scotland in the 1982 survey were 341.1357 for personal crime and 158.6610 for household crime; in the 1988 survey, 347,1344 for personal crime and 172,8178 for household crime. In the 1993 survey, the comparable factors for all Scotland were 408.5788 for personal crime, 203.9437 for household crime and 345.1344 and 172.8178 respectively for central and southern Scotland. In the 1996 survey, the factors used were, for all Scotland, 410.0838 (personal crime) and 212.1267 (household crime) and for southern and central Scotland, 349.6598 (personal crime) and 179.1942 (household crime).
Criminal statistics are counted differently in Scotland than in England and Wales. In Scotland, all criminal acts which make up a criminal incident are counted, whereas England and Wales only the most serious criminal act is counted. This means that official police recorded crime rates in Scotland tend to be higher than in England and Wales.
BCS incidents are classified according to the Home Office counting rules for England and Wales; i.e. they are classified by 'main offence'. In order to allow 1982 and 1988 BCS data for Scotland to be compared with Scottish criminal statistics, however, special coding procedures were applied which were designed to estimate the number of incidents known in Scotland as multiple-offence incidents, which could have generated secondary and subsequent offence codes if classified according to Scottish counting rules. These procedures showed that the vast majority of incidents of victimisation uncovered by the survey involved single offences and, therefore, a 'main offence' only comparison with criminal statistics was valid in 90% of cases. Almost all of the 10% of cases involving secondary offences were incidents of vandalism.
Making the assumption that the police would classify reports of criminal incidents in a similar manner to survey coders, it was concluded that Scottish criminal statistics contained only a small proportion of secondary offences. This allowed valid comparisons between BCS 'main offence' codes and Scottish criminal statistics. Comparisons for the category of vandalism, however, were likely to be less precise than for other categories because where the BCS rate for vandalism was based on the main offence code, the criminal statistics rate also included a proportion of secondary offences. The proportion of recorded to unrecorded vandalism was therefore thought to be an overestimate of around 2% or 3%.
As with previous surveys, various adjustments were made to the 1999 Scottish official police recorded crime statistics in order to enhance comparability with the SCS. These adjustments exclude offences committed against commercial premises and offences committed against people under the age of 16.
« Previous | Contents | Next »