The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Indicators of progress: Definitions, data, baseline and trends information

Milestone 23: Reducing the fear of crime among older people

Indicator

The information used to measure progress against this milestone is taken from the Scottish Crime Survey (SCS) which is run by the Scottish Executive. No additional information is available for this year's report as the Survey takes place every four years. Currently there is no alternative data source. The SCS is currently under review, with a view to increasing the frequency of the survey. In addition, a review of the crime questions in the Scottish Household Survey is currently underway, with a view to harmonising the 'Fear of Crime' questions.

Availability of data

Headline information on 'Fear of Housebreaking', 'Fear of physical assault on the street' and 'Fear of car theft' are provided in this report.

Fear of crime

The Table 23a shows that the percentage of people aged 60 or more who were very worried about being a victim of housebreaking has decreased over the course of the 1990s. It is also clear that during the time period measured women felt more concerned about this crime than men. Table 23b shows that the percentage of people aged 60 or more who were very worried about physical assault on the street also decreased over the course of the 1990s. As in the case of housebreaking, women were more worried about becoming a victim of this crime than men.

Table 23a : Fear of housebreaking (Percentage of group)

Source : Scottish Crime Survey : Scottish Executive
Note : Information available for 1988 only covers Central and Southern Scotland where as the 1993, 1996 and 2000 data covers all of Scotland.

Table 23b : Fear of physical assault on the street (Percentage of group)

Source : Scottish Crime Survey : Scottish Executive

Table 23c shows that the percentage of people aged 60 or more who were very worried about being a victim of car theft fell slightly during the 1990s. Whilst women were again more worried than men about being a victim of this crime, the difference between the sexes was not as pronounced as in the other two areas of crime highlighted above.

Table 23c: Fear of car theft (Percentage of group)

Source : Scottish Crime Survey : Scottish Executive
Notes : Information about car theft is based on car owners only

Rural and Urban figures

The following figures are taken from the Scottish Crime Survey and give a broad overview of the differences between the attitude to crime in urban and rural Scotland. The definition of urban and rural Scotland is based on settlement size. This differs from t he definitions used elsewhere in the report - refer to Annex A for details.

The information would indicate that those people aged 60 or more living in urban Scotland, are more likely to be very worried about being a victim of housebreaking, physical assault and car theft than those people living in rural Scotland.

Table 23d : Fear of crime (Percentage of group)

Source : Scottish Crime Survey : Scottish Executive
Notes : Rural Scotland is defined as settlements with less than 10,000 people
Urban Scotland is defined as settlements with more than 10,000 people
Information about car theft is based on car owners only

Information on the effect that a fear of crime has on the quality of life for people aged 60 or more is available from the SCS 2000. The data indicates that people in urban Scotland are more likely to consider that fear of crime has a greater impact on their life than people in rural Scotland.

Table 23e : The effect that fear of crime has on the quality of life (Percentage of group)

Source : Scottish Crime Survey : Scottish Executive
Notes : Rural Scotland is defined as settlements with less than 10,000 people
Urban Scotland is defined as settlements with more than 10,000 people

« Previous | Contents | Next »