Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2021/22: Main Findings
Main findings from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2021/22.
9.5: Focus on veterans
The 2021/22 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey introduced, for the first time, a question to gather information on veteran status of respondents. Specifically, all respondents were asked “have you previously served in the UK Armed Forces?”, and the options presented to respondents were[133]:
1. No
2. Yes, previously served in regular Armed Forces
3. Yes, previously served in reserve Armed Forces
As with other questions in the survey, respondents could choose to answer ‘don’t know’ or refuse to answer.[134]
This was introduced in order to provide a source of evidence to understand the prevalence of veterans in the population, as well as learn other factors about veterans – for example, demographic characteristics such as sex and age, or other socio-economic characteristics such as deprivation.
This can also be used to analyse how the experiences of veterans differ from the rest of the population on a range of measures included in the SCJS. For example, differences in the likelihood of experiencing victimisation as well as attitudinal questions such as feelings of safety or fear of crime.
This section provides an initial exploratory analysis of:
- demographics of veterans who responded to the latest survey
- their victimisation rates
- their responses to selected indicators and how these compared with the non-veteran population
Given this question has only been introduced for the first time in this survey, it is not possible to provide any comparisons or trends over time. Additionally, it is not possible to determine whether the results seen in this survey will be reflective of the results from future surveys, therefore caution should be exercised when interpreting any of the results presented in this section.
Prevalence of veterans in the latest SCJS findings
The findings of the 2021/22 survey show that the vast majority of respondents never served in the UK Armed Forces (95.9%). Just under one-in thirty (3.1%) have previously served in the regular Armed Forces and less than one-in-one-hundred (0.9%) have served in the reserve Armed Forces, with less than one percent refusing to answer the question (0.3%). When looking at veteran status of any kind, the 2021/22 SCJS finds that 3.8% of all respondents were veterans.[135],[136] Full results of this question are shown in Table 9.1 below.
Table 9.1: The vast majority of SCJS respondents have not previously served in the UK Armed Forces, but veteran status varies across the population.
| No | Yes: regular Armed Forces | Yes: reserve Armed Forces | Yes: combined | Refused | Number of respondents | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All respondents | 95.9 | 3.1 | 0.9 | 3.8 | 0.3 | 5,520 |
| Male | 92.7 | 5.8 | 1.7 | 7.1 | 0.2 | 2,490 |
| Female | 98.9 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 3,020 |
| 16-24 | 98.9 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 330 |
| 25-44 | 98.2 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 1,580 |
| 45-59 | 95.9 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 4.2 | 0.2 | 1,360 |
| 60+ | 92.9 | 5.7 | 1.7 | 7.0 | 0.1 | 2,280 |
| Urban | 96.2 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 3.5 | 0.4 | 4,460 |
| Rural | 94.7 | 3.8 | 1.7 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 1,060 |
| Disabled | 95.1 | 4.2 | 0.8 | 4.7 | 0.1 | 1,570 |
| Non-disabled | 96.2 | 2.7 | 0.9 | 3.5 | 0.4 | 3,940 |
| 15% most deprived | 96.1 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 770 |
| Rest of Scotland | 95.9 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 3.9 | 0.2 | 4,740 |
Base: 2021/22 (5,520); Variable: QDVET.
As shown in Table 9.1, veteran status varied across the population in the 2021/22 SCJS results. For example, veteran status was more commonly seen in males compared to females (7.1% compared to 0.7% respectively).
A clear pattern was observed between age and veteran status. The youngest age group, 16-24 year olds, were the least likely to be veterans at 0.1%. The prevalence of veterans increased with each older age category, with those aged 60 and over being the category with the highest proportion of veterans (7.0%).
The population subgroup with the highest proportion of veterans of any was males aged 60 and over, with over one-in-eight (13.5%) people in this group previously serving in the Armed Forces.
Those living in a rural area were more likely to be a veteran than those living in an urban area (5.3% compared to 3.5%, respectively).
There was no difference in veteran status found on the basis of deprivation, or disability when looking at the combined veteran status category. However, if restricting the analysis to just those who served in the regular Armed Forces, a higher proportion of disabled people (4.2%) were veterans than non-disabled people (2.7%).
Making comparisons between the veteran and non-veteran population
The information gathered from the newly introduced veteran status question can be used to further analyse other questions from the SCJS and investigate whether the experiences and opinions of veterans differs from the rest of the population.
However, as demonstrated above, the prevalence of veterans varies significantly across different population groups. The biggest differences seen are in sex and age, where males are more likely to be veterans than females, as are older people compared to younger people.
Due to this, any attempt to compare veterans to non-veterans is likely to be influenced by these other demographic differences mentioned. While it might be useful to frame the analysis like this in the most simple terms, it is unlikely to show any effect of veteran status in isolation.
To partially overcome this issue, the analysis presented in the following sections will also provide a comparison of two groups that share some demographic similarities - namely males over the age of 25 who are veterans and males over the aged of 25 who are not veterans. This allows other demographic differences to be controlled for and may provide a better estimation of the effect of veteran status to be presented.
Rate of victimisation amongst veterans
The design of the SCJS makes it a very good tool for estimating the prevalence of victimisation across the population. Overall, the 2021/22 SCJS found that 10.0% of respondents were the victim of any type of crime within the scope of the survey.
The two broad categories of crime picked up by the survey are violent and property crime, with the estimated prevalence in 2021/22 being 1.7% and 8.7% respectively.
When analysing the victimisation rates for all veteran respondents, it was found that there was no difference in the rates between veterans and non-veterans for overall crime, as well as for violent crime and property crime individually.
Even when using the approach outlined above to restrict the analysis to more comparable subsections of the population (i.e. male respondents aged 25 and over), there was still no difference found in the victimisation rates between veterans and non-veterans.
Therefore, findings from this sweep of the SCJS indicate that the likelihood of being a victim of crime does not vary by veteran status.
National Performance Framework indicators
Alongside the overall prevalence of victimisation, the SCJS is used by Scotland’s National Performance Framework for two other indicators: perceptions of local crime rate; and access to justice.
The perceptions of local crime rate indicator asks people how they think the crime rate in their local area has changed in the last two years prior to the interview. The general overview indicates that a majority of individuals believe the crime rate has either remained stable or decreased, with just over three-quarters (75.8%) of people answering this way in 2021/22. Veteran status was found to have no effect on how people perceived changes in the crime rate in their local area, and this remained true when comparing only veterans and non-veterans who were males aged 25 or over.
The access to justice indicator asks respondents how confident they are that the Scottish criminal justice system makes sure everyone has access to the justice system if they need it. Just under three-quarters (73.6%) of all people answer that they are very or fairly confident for this question. As with the other indicators, no difference was detected between veterans and non-veterans here, and again this remained true when comparing only veterans and non-veterans who were male and over the age of 25.
Feelings of safety
The SCJS asks two questions of respondents regarding feelings of safety. The first asks people how safe they feel walking alone after dark in their local area. Overall, the majority of respondents in 2021/22 reported feeling very or fairly safe (76.2%). In this instance, veteran respondents were more likely to feel safe than the rest of the population (85.6% compared to 75.9%, respectively).
However, when only comparing veterans and non-veterans who were male and over the age of 25, no differences between these groups were detected. This suggests that the difference seen between veterans and the rest of the population was driven by other demographic factors that differentiate these groups, rather than being an effect of veteran status alone.
For example, the analysis above shows that veterans are far more likely to be male than female, and the 2021/22 survey results show that males overall are more likely to feel safe walking alone after dark in their area than females (90% compared to 63%, respectively). This could explain why a difference is seen between all veterans and all non-veterans, but not for the comparison of males aged 25 and over.
The second question on feelings of safety asks how safe respondents feel alone in their home at night. For this question, the vast majority of people feel very or fairly safe (96.7%), and no differences were found on the basis of veteran status.
Perception of crime in their local area
Respondents to the SCJS are asked a series of questions around how common specific crimes are in their local area.
Overall, how prevalent an issue is perceived to be can vary significantly. For example, drug dealing and drug abuse is the issue that people are most likely to perceive as common (44.7%), and people being physically attacked because of their skin colour etc. was the least likely to be perceived as common (4.8%). A full breakdown of peoples’ perceptions of local issues can be found in the supplementary tables.
Table 9.2 below outlines issues where it was found that the perception of veterans and non-veterans was significantly different. In each of the issues listed in the table, veterans were less likely to perceive something as common compared to the rest of the population. For those issues not listed in the table, there was no difference found between veterans and non-veterans.
However, for some measures these differences disappeared when restricting the analysis to only veterans and non-veterans who are male and over the age of 25. A difference in perception was still detected between veterans and non-veterans who were male and over the age of 25 for three of the crime types.
Therefore, it is not possible to determine if these differences are due to the effect of being a veteran or whether there are other demographic factors driving the observed differences.
Table 9.2: Veterans were less likely than non-veterans to think a range of issues were common in their local area.
| Overall Population (% Net: common) | Difference between all veterans and the rest of the population? | Difference between veterans and non-veterans who are male and over the age of 25? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deliberate damage to people’s homes by vandals? | 10.1 | Yes – veterans lower | No |
| People being mugged or robbed? | 5.7 | Yes – veterans lower | No |
| People being physically assaulted or attacked in the street or other public places? | 10.9 | Yes – veterans lower | Yes – veterans lower |
| People being sexually assaulted? | 5.9 | Yes – veterans lower | Yes – veterans lower |
| Violence between groups of individuals or gangs? | 13.3 | Yes – veterans lower | No |
| People carrying knives? | 10.2 | Yes – veterans lower | No |
| People buying or selling smuggled or fake goods? | 9.5 | Yes – veterans lower | Yes – veterans lower |
Base: 2021/22 (1,380). Variable: QACO.
Fear of crime
The SCJS asks people how worried they are about a range of issues happening to them. Overall, a majority of people are not worried about any of the things asked about happening to them, the issue that people are most worried about is being a victim of banking fraud, with 49.5% of people being very or fairly worried about this. The issue that people are least worried about is being involved or caught up in violence between groups of individuals or gangs, with only 11.6% of people worried about this issue.
Analysis of the 2021/22 survey finds that for almost all types of crime asked about, there was no difference in how worried veterans were compared to non-veterans. The only exceptions were for worry about being sexually assaulted and fear of being a victim of banking fraud. In both of these cases, veterans were less worried than non-veterans.
Just over one-in-twenty (5.4%) veterans were either very or fairly worried about being sexually assaulted, this compares to just over one-in-eight (12.7%) of all non-veterans. However, this this is not the case when only looking at males over the age of 25, where there is no difference detected between veterans and non-veterans. This suggests that the difference seen between veterans and all non-veterans could be driven by other demographic factors present in these groups.
For fear of being a victim of banking fraud, veterans were also less worried than non-veterans (42.3% compared to 49.9%, respectively). Similarly, this finding was not present when only looking at males over the age of 25, where there was no difference found between veterans and non-veterans.
Respondents who answer that they are worried about any crime happening to them are asked to what extent their fear of crime prevents them from doing things they would otherwise want to do. In 2021/22 the majority of people (55.6%) answered that their fear of crime affects them to no extent, and this showed no difference on the basis of veteran status.
Summary
In 2021/22, the SCJS introduced a question on veteran status of respondents. These first findings suggest that just under one-in-twenty-five (3.8%) respondents have previously served in either the regular or reserve UK Armed Forces. Veteran status was found to vary significantly across the population, in particular males are more likely to have served than females (7.1% compared to 0.7%), and older people (60+) are more likely than younger people (16-24) (7% compared to 0.1%).
The victimisation rate, as well as how individuals responded to the National Performance Framework indicators, was not found to be statistically different between veterans and non-veterans. While some differences were detected between veterans and non-veterans for questions around feelings of safety, these differences were not detected when comparing only males aged 25 or over. Similarly for perceptions of the local area and fear of crime, many of the apparent differences detected between veterans and non-veterans were no longer present when comparing between more similar groups and controlling for some of the demographic differences seen.
We will continue to monitor the data collected using this question going forward and will consider the best options to present the findings in future reports.
Contact
Email: scjs@gov.scot
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