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Publication - Statistics

Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2018/19: main findings

Published
16 June 2020
Directorate
Justice Directorate, +1 more … Safer Communities Directorate
Topic
Law and order
ISBN
9781839608070

Main findings from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2018/2019.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Annex B: Overview of police recorded crime and the SCJS

Recorded Crime Scottish Crime and Justice Survey
Where do the data come from? Administrative police records Face to face interviews with residents from a nationally representative sample of the household population
Basis for inclusion Crimes recorded to the police in Scotland, governed by the Scottish Crime Recording Standard Trained coders determine whether experiences of victimisation in the last 12 months constitute a crime and assign an offence code
Frequency Collected by financial year. Statistics released in an annual publication Survey conducted annually for each financial year with reference period extending over 25 months. Results previously published biennially, now annually
Strengths
  • Covers the full range of crimes and offences
  • Provides data at a local level
  • A good measure of rarer, more serious crimes that are well reported
  • Measure of long-term trends
  • Good measure of crime that the police are faced with
  • Good measure of trends since 2008/09
  • Captures further information about crimes that are and are not reported to the police (including sensitive issues such as domestic abuse or drug abuse)
  • Analyses crime for different demographic groups and victim-offender relationships
  • Provides information on multiple and repeat victimisation (up to 5 incidents in a series)
  • Provides attitudinal data (e.g. fear of crime or attitudes towards the criminal justice system)
Limitations
  • Partially reliant on the public reporting crime
  • Reporting rates may vary by the type of crime (e.g. serious crime is more likely to be reported or housebreaking if a crime number is required for insurance purposes)
  • Trends can be affected by legislation; public reporting practices; police recording practices
  • Does not cover all crimes (e.g. homicide or crimes without specific victims, such as speeding)
  • Does not cover the entire population (e.g. children, homeless people or people living in communal accommodation)
  • Less able to produce robust data at lower level geographies
  • Difficult to measure trends between survey years, especially in rarer forms of crime (such as more serious offences)
  • Estimates are subject to a degree of error (confidence intervals)
What other data are collected?
  • Additional statistical bulletins published, including on homicides, firearm offences and domestic abuse incidents
  • Public perceptions about crime
  • Worry about crime and the perceived likelihood of being a victim
  • Confidence in the police and the criminal justice system
  • Prevalence estimates on 'sensitive' topics (partner abuse, sexual victimisation, stalking and drug use). Reported on biennially

Contact

Email: scjs@gov.scot

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