Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2017/18: main findings

Annex E: Interpreting charts, tables and figures in this report

What do I need to know to help me understand the charts and tables in this report?

The information provided alongside figures and tables includes a title, the data source (survey year etc.), a base definition and the unweighted number of respondents and, if relevant, a variable name. Unless otherwise stated the results are from 2017/18. Examples of a figure and a table are shown below. Changes which are statistically significant at the 95% level are highlighted with arrows as shown in the example below.

Figure

Table

Unweighted Base

All SCJS percentages and rates presented in the figures and tables are based on weighted data (see Chapter 4 of the accompanying Technical Report for details on survey weighting). However, figures and tables show the unweighted base which represents the number of respondents / households in the specified group or the numbers of crimes that the analysis is based on^[151]. In tables and figures these are rounded to the nearest multiple of 10 (unrounded numbers are provided in data tables released alongside this report).

Percentages & rounding

Most results presented in this report are rounded to whole numbers, but are available to three decimal places in the data tables released alongside this report. The prevalence estimates results presented in this report are provided to one decimal place which can sometimes be helpful where results are low. However, it should be noted that these results are estimates with assoicated ranges of uncertainty around them, which are taken account of in the statistical testing used in this report (and available more generally by using the Users Statistical Testing Tool published online alongside data tables).

Table row or column percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

Percentages presented in tables and figures where they refer to the percentage of respondents, households or crimes that have the attribute being discussed may not sum to 100 per cent. Respondents have the option to refuse answering any question they did not wish to answer and the majority of questions have a 'don't know' option. Percentages for these response categories are generally not shown in tables and figures. In a small number of instances, to aid interpretation of the results, analysis is also presented based on data with ‘don’t know’ and ‘refused’ responses removed.

A percentage may be quoted in the report text for a single category that is identifiable in the figures / tables only by summing two or more component percentages. In order to avoid rounding errors, the percentage has been recalculated for the single combined category and therefore may differ slightly (i.e. by one or two percentage points) from the sum of the percentages derived from the figures/tables shown.

Also, percentages quoted in the report may represent variables that allow respondents to choose multiple responses. These percentages will not sum to 100 per cent with the other percentages presented. They represent the percentage of the variable population that selected a certain response category.