Scottish Crime and Justice Survey: revisions and corrections

Corporate policy statement

Revisions and corrections to previously published Scottish Crime and Justice Survey data are dealt with in accordance with the Scottish Government Statistician Group corporate policy statement on revisions and corrections.

SCJS revisions and corrections

The SCJS adheres to the corporate policy statement on revisions and corrections noted above. Key things to note are:

• there are no SCJS statistics which are subject to regular scheduled revisions
• all revisions and corrections will be brought to the attention of users as soon as they are identified with appropriate notes added to the relevant publications and releases online
• substantial revisions will be summarised on this page

If you have any comments or queries regarding revisions and errors in the SCJS, then please contact us via the contact details at the bottom of this page.

Summary list

Please be aware of the following revisions and corrections within the SCJS:

SCJS 2019/20 main findings report

An updated version of the 2019/20 Main Findings Report was published in April 2021 which corrected a number of small inaccuracies within Chapter 9 “Summary findings on SCJS self-completion modules” in the figures relating to the proportion of those who were victims (or not victims) of SCJS crime in the main SCJS survey who were also victims of an experience asked about in the self-completion part of the survey (drug use, stalking and harassment, partner abuse, or sexual victimisation).

SCJS 2019/20 associated data tables

Table 3.06 in the ‘volume 3 - victim form’ 2019/20 data tables regarding whether an incident might have been motivated by a discriminatory factor has been corrected. Only the combined ‘any of these’ variable was affected; the individual answer categories were unaffected.

SCJS 2018/20 associated data tables

The data tables for the self-completion modules (volumes 5-8) and the police division level data tables (volume C1) were updated. This corrected small errors to the victim status breakdowns in the self-completion tables and Table C1.01. The interactive data tool has also been updated to reflect these changes.

SCJS 2018/19 main findings report

An updated version of the 2018/19 Main Findings Report, which superseded the original, was published in October 2020, with small inaccuracies in Chapter 8 (PDF pages 131 and 134) updated. The original report stated that "In 2018/19, 13% of adults said that they had been insulted, pestered or intimidated in the previous year, in line with the proportion of respondents who experienced such incidents in 2008/09 and 2017/18. Younger adults were more likely to have experienced harassment than older adults (27% of 16-24 year olds compared to 15% of 25-44 year olds, 12% of 45-59 year olds and 6% of people aged 60 and over)". 13% should have been 12%, 27% should have been 26% and 15% should have been 14%. The findings on comparisons over time and variations between age groups are not impacted. Also, these changes do not affect any other results in the report.

Further corrections were made to the 2018/19 Main Findings Report in March 2021. These changes were all minor and are outlined in more detail on the errata section of the HTML report.

SCJS 2018/19 associated data tables

Table 3.06 in the ‘volume 3 - victim form’ 2018/19 data tables regarding whether an incident might have been motivated by a discriminatory factor has been corrected. Only the combined ‘any of these’ variable was affected; the individual answer categories were unaffected.

SCJS 2017/18 main findings report

An error was found in the 2017/18 figures in Annex table “A1.4: Rates of crime in Scotland, per 10,000 households/adults, 2008/09 to 2017/18”. These figures have been corrected in the 2018/19 Main Findings Report (published 16th June 2020) to reflect the use of NRS household estimates and NRS Mid-2017 adult (aged 16 and over) population estimates. We recommend users revert to Annex table A1.4 in the 2018/19 report.

An updated version of the 2017/18 SCJS Main Report, which superseded the original, was published in July 2019, which updated an error in Chapter 3 (PDF page 48). Originally, the report stated that “the proportion of cases involving offenders aged 40 and over had increased from 12% in 2008/09” to 23% in 2017/18. This 2008/09 figure should have been 18%, however, which meant that the apparent increase was not statistically significant. All figures for 2017/18 remained unchanged.

Further corrections were made to the 2017/18 Main Findings Report in March 2021, with an updated version on the website. This has corrected the proportion of those who had experienced at least one incident of partner abuse since age 16 and considered themselves to have ever been a victim of domestic abuse, from 9% to 46% (Section 9.3, PDF page 138). The figures related to the offenders' relationship to the victim of serious sexual assault has been updated in Section 9.4. This affected the text at the bottom of page 143 in the PDF and Figure 9.16. These changes are outlined in more detail on the errata section of the HTML report.

SCJS 2017/18 associated data tables

In March 2021 an updated version of the sexual victimisation data tables were published. All figures remain unchanged, however additional tables on prevalence in the last 12 months and the offenders’ relationship and gender were included.

SCJS 2014/15 technical report

An updated version of the 2014/15 SCJS Technical Report, which supersedes the original, was published in March 2017. The latest version updates the fieldwork outcomes tables 3.1 and 3.2 with the corrected number and proportion of cases assigned to specific non-response and ineligible categories. This does not affect the overall response rate. The tables in Annex 11 have also been updated, with corrected design factors (the original tables contained design effects, the square of the design factors).

SCJS 2014/15 main findings excel tables

The 2014/15 Main Findings Excel data tables were republished on 7th July 2016. The formula bar in the new tables provides results to three decimal places, rather than two decimal places, which enhances the ability for users to conduct statistical significance testing using the SCJS 2014/15 Statistical Testing Tool.

SJCS 2012/13 Partner Abuse Report

The 2012/13 SCJS Partner Abuse Report included analysis on who victims tell about their abuse (section 4.2) and on reporting to the police (section 4.3). Each of these sections was split into two parts. These two parts were described as being based on the most recent incident and based on any other incident. The part noted as being based on the most recent incident is correct and includes all respondents, however the parts based ‘any other incident’ included the 213 respondents who experienced one of more incidents of partner abuse in the last 12 months (and excluded 21 respondents who refused to answer or said they didn’t know how many times they experienced partner abuse in the last 12 months). The 2014/15 SCJS Partner Abuse Report presents results based only on the most recent incident and includes all respondents.

SCJS 2012/13 main findings report

The pdf version of the SCJS 2012/13 Main Findings Report was updated and can now be printed in its entirety.

Please note that the one of the points in the main findings section of Chapter 5 of the 2012/13 SCJS report has been changed to “Nearly one-in-four violent crimes (23%) went unreported to the police because the victim “dealt with the matter themselves” and 14% of violent crimes were unreported because the incident was considered a personal or family matter.”  from “Nearly one-in-ten violent crimes (9%) went unreported to the police because the victim “dealt with the matter themselves” and 14% of violent crimes were unreported because the incident was considered a personal or family matter.” This change has been made to both the HTML and pdf versions originally released on 7 March 2014.

SCJS drug use reports : 2008/09 to 2012/13

During the quality assurance process in advance of publication of the SCJS 2014/15 Drug Use report in June 2016, a small number of relatively minor errors were found in previous iterations of the report. These involve  

• the classification of amphetamines in the 2012/13 report and published data tables

• some minor inaccuracies in the values in annex data tables in the 2012/13 report for amphetamines, crack, cannabis, anabolic steroids and tranquilisers

• description of the base sizes for the analysis of the experiences of those using drugs in some instances in the 2010/11 and 2012/13 reports

• the placement of crystal meth within annex data tables in each report since 2008/09

The 2014/15 SCJS Drug Use report corrects each of these points and should be used for time series data on SCJS Drug Use. Read further details.

SCJS Design Factors for 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11

A change in sample structure in the 2012/13 SCJS highlighted an error in the calculation of design factors that were presented in Annex A4 and Table A4.1 of the 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11 SCJS surveys.

In summary, while the 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11 surveys do present accurate complex standard errors and confidence intervals, the calculation of the survey design factor (a measure of the survey efficiency) did not take account of survey weighting correctly. More information on this is highlighted in Annex A4 of the 2012/13 SCJS report, and also summarised here with more details of the design factor change.

The ‘generic’ 1.5 design factor that our additional calculations has derived has been used to update Table A4.1 for the 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11 surveys.