« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
SCOTTISH CRIME SURVEY 2003
APPENDIX D: COMPARISON BETWEEN THE SCS AND POLICE RECORDED CRIME STATISTICS
It is possible to make comparisons between the SCS and police recorded crime statistics for 6 general offence groups: vandalism, housebreaking, theft of motor vehicles, bicycle theft, assault (comprising petty and serious assault) and robbery.
Estimates of the total number of crimes in Scotland were obtained by grossing up the SCS crime rates based on population estimates for 2003. Police recorded Crime Statistics were published in Statistical Bulletin Criminal Justice Series CrJ/2003/3 in May 2003, 'Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2002'. These were then adjusted to allow comparability with the SCS. This adjustment included excluding crimes against public and corporately owned property and crimes against victims under 16 years of age. The adjusted recorded crime figures are estimates based on survey information from Strathclyde, the largest police force area in Scotland.
In 2002, the police would not have recorded all crimes reported to them because, prior to the implementation of a new Scottish Crime Recording Standard in 2004, they tended to adopt an 'evidential' model of crime recording. That is, before recording an incident as a crime, the police required evidence that a crime had been committed as opposed to accident or loss; they would not take the victim's account of the incident unsupported. The new Scottish Crime Recording Standard takes a more victim-oriented approach.
Indexed trends reported in Chapter 4 differ from previously published indexed trends (MVA 2002; MVA 1998) for two reasons. First, previous indexed trends were based only on southern and central Scotland and second, because they were indexed to 1982.
« Previous | Contents | Next »