Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2014/15: Partner Abuse

Footnotes

1. From April 2016, the SCJS will revert to a continuous survey of around 6,000 adults each year.

2. While the analysis for the SCJS main findings report was mainly conducted in SAS and statistical significance assessed there and using the SCJS Statistical Testing Tool, the analysis for the self-completion reports utilised related functionality in SPSS to assess for statistical significance and report significance consistently at the 95% level.

3. 'Preventing Domestic Abuse. A National Strategy'. http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2003/09/18185/26440

4. See: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/9/section/76/enacted

5. A criminal offence of domestic abuse https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/criminal-law-and-sentencing-team/criminal-offence-domestic-abuse

6. See 'Domestic Abuse Guidelines for Prosecutors': http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/domestic_abuse_guidelines_for_prosecutors/#a02

7. See 'Domestic Abuse Consultation launched' (22/12/2015) http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Domestic-abuse-consultation-launched-20b4.aspx

8. Comparable questions on the experience of partner abuse have been asked in each sweep of the SCJS since 2008-09.

9. The SCJS asks respondents if they have experienced a range of abusive physical behaviour. In 2012/13, the wording 'thrown something at you' was changed to 'thrown something at you with the intention of causing harm'. This change may have contributed to a fall in the proportion of positive responses (from 8% in 2010/11, to 5% in 2012/13).

10. The results for risk of partner abuse in the last 12 months in this section of the report are based on those respondents who said that they had contact with their partner/ex partners in the previous 12 months (REL_0i, 6,925). In later sections of the report, we consider all experiences reported by the 238 respondents who provided information on abuse within the last 12 months.

11. This difference is on the borderline of statistical significance (p=0.05).

12. Crime Survey of England and Wales (2014, p.13) Chapter 4 - Intimate Personal Violence and Partner Abuse. Online at: www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_352362.pdf

13. Access the report here - http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs04/hors276.pdf

14. A victim is defined as a respondent who reported crimes or offences in the main questionnaire (excluding sexual offences and threats) that are within the scope of the survey, took place in Scotland, and occurred within the reference period.

15. This question response category is further explored in variable DA_6CHK available in the underlying dataset.

16. The SCJS also includes a number of additional types of abuse (see Section 1.5.1).

17. By 2010/11, main carers in Birth Cohort 1 had been interviewed up to 6 times (in some cases by the same interviewer) in annual face-to-face sweeps.

18. The SSA is carried out by ScotCen Social Research. The 2014 survey involved 1,501 interviews with a representative probability sample of the Scottish population. The findings discussed here are reported in the Attitudes to violence against women in Scotland report (Reid et al. 2014).

19. This figure is higher than the proportion of victims who told the police about abuse (outlined in Section 4.3.). This is because the question captures abuse that the victim may not have reported themselves, but that the police came to know about in another way.