Domestic abuse: statistics recorded by the police in Scotland - 2013/14 and 2014/15

Annex 2: Quality of the Statistics

Reporting and Quality Assurance of Domestic Abuse Statistics:

6.10. The statistics reported in this bulletin do not reveal the incidence of all domestic abuse committed since not all incidents are reported to the police. In conjunction with the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), the statistics help to assess the extent and impact of domestic abuse in Scotland. A number of reasons have been found for such under reporting. For example, victims experience fear and shame as common effects of domestic abuse. In addition, under reporting may also be caused by a perpetrator physically preventing a victim reporting the domestic abuse.

6.11. Police Scotland and COPFS have domestic abuse as a high priority. As such, they have a Joint Protocol outlining the procedures and practices to follow when dealing with incidents of domestic abuse. The protocol can be obtained from Police Scotland website:

http://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/keep_safe/175573?view=Standard

6.12. The data provided by Police Scotland go through a process of quality assurance in which data received are checked against previous years and comparable sources. Anything unusual or which we feel requires further explanation is then fed back to Police Scotland for their attention. Any amendments are carried out and the final data is used to produce a set of data tables which can be used to check the final dataset. If the police are content that the figures are an accurate reflection of the dataset, then the data is officially signed off for use in the publication.

6.13. During the quality assurance checking process, it is possible for errors to be found in data for previous years. While we do not routinely revise figures, we are committed to correcting errors in the data and providing suitable explanations for any changes made to previously published data.

6.14. Police Scotland record complete information for all incidents. There is however a challenge in retrieving and linking the captured information to meet the specific data requirements for this publication. As a result some values for key variables are marked 'missing'. The percentage of incidents of domestic abuse where information is recorded as missing is contained in Section 2.7. Missing data has been analysed where possible to look for trends and patterns that would affect the quality of the statistics in this bulletin.

6.15. The statistics provided in this data return over the years have highlighted the different ways in which police legacy forces recorded information. In particular, police practice in deciding when the behaviour justifies the recording of a crime or offence may differ. For example, some legacy forces had ruled that no crime or offence should be recorded if no further action was taken e.g. because the victim did not wish any action to be taken. Other forces may have recorded this as a crime or offence.

6.16. The differences in legacy force practice clearly influenced the proportion of incidents which lead to the recording of a crime or offence. For example, in 2010-11, this ranged from 98% in Tayside, to 31% in Dumfries & Galloway.

6.17. With all Police Divisions now using the same iVPD system to record incidents of Domestic Abuse and following the same Police Scotland guidance, inconsistencies in approach should be minimised over time.

Changes in Methodology

6.18. 2009-10 was the first year in which data was submitted based on the date the incident was recorded. Prior to this, data was returned based on the number of incidents which occurred during that time period. As historic data has never been revised in this publication series, any incidents which occurred in a different time period to the date in which the incident was recorded will have been excluded from the returns.

6.19. For example, if an incident occurred during 2007-08 but was reported during 2008-09, it would have been excluded from 2008-09 (since the date committed is not in the relevant time period), but it would also have been missed out of the 2007-08 data as the submitted data would not have been updated. Hence, the incident would not be reported in the statistics in this publication series and hence contributed to an underestimate. Although this publication series has never revised this information, some legacy forces may have updated their own collections and prepared refreshed data in response to bespoke requests.

6.20. The number of incidents in the bulletins from 2009-10 onwards, is based on the date the incident was recorded. This should give a better reflection of police activity relating to incidents of domestic abuse. By reporting on the date the incidents were committed, we get a snapshot account of the number of incidents of domestic abuse occurring within a particular period. However, by analysing the data based on the date recorded, we can see the trend in reporting incidents of domestic abuse to the police. Hence, if there was an increase in the number of victims who found the courage to report incidents of domestic abuse to the police, this should be reflected in the statistics.

Legislation

6.21. There have been no major legislative changes throughout 2014-15 which impact on the comparability of the statistics.

6.22. As well as common law, some of the main legislation applicable to domestic abuse is as follows:

• Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 (Section 31 of this Act introduced the concept of "domestic interdicts" into the 1981 Act, which applies to unmarried cohabitants (either opposite-sex or same-sex). Domestic interdicts have much the same effect in relation to cohabitants as matrimonial interdicts have for married couples as is defined in section 10 of this Act, which amends section 14 of the 1981 Act to extend the scope of matrimonial interdicts to include not only a matrimonial home, but also any other home owned by the applicant, the applicant's place of work and the school attended by any child in the applicant's care)
• Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001
• Criminal Justice Act 1998
• Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• Protection from Harassment Act 1997
• Family Law Act 1996
• Matrimonial Homes (Family Law) (Scotland) Act 1981

Mid-year Population Estimates

6.23. The Mid-year estimates used in this publication to calculate the rates per 100,000 population were obtained from the National Records of Scotland (NRS). NRS have recently alerted users to errors contained within the age groups for 2002 to 2014. These errors will be corrected by NRS in April 2016. The errors discovered are small and as such, the overall impact on the data in this publication will be minimal. Further information on the errors found are documented on the NRS website:

http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/population