| Where does the data come from? |
Administrative police records |
Telephone interviews with residents from a recontact sample from the 2018/19 and 2019/20 SCJS surveys |
Face-to-face interviews with residents from a nationally representative sample of the household population |
| Basis for inclusion |
Crimes recorded by 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 or not and assign an offence code which specifies that crime |
| Frequency |
Collected by financial year (April to March). Statistics released in an annual publication as well as on a monthly basis from April 2020 |
Single survey. Fieldwork conducted during September and October 2020, with a reference period extending over 13 months from September 2019 to September 2020 |
Survey conducted annually for each financial year with reference period extending over 25 months. Results previously published biennially, now annually and available on the SCJS website. |
| 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
- A good measure of long-term trends
- A good measure of crime that the police are faced with
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- Analyses crime for different demographic groups
- Provides information on multiple and repeat victimisation (up to five incidents in a series)
- Provides attitudinal data (e.g. fear of crime and perceptions of police)
- Fieldwork can be undertaken whilst face-to-face fieldwork is not possible
- Provides estimation of change in crime rate after the implementation of the UK's first national lockdown (23rd March 2020)
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- A good measure of trends in crime since 2008/09
- Captures further information about crimes that are not reported to the police (including domestic abuse or drug abuse)
- Analyses crime for different demographic groups and victim-offender relationships
- Provides information on multiple and repeat victimisation (up to five incidents in a series)
- Provides attitudinal data (e.g. fear of crime and attitudes towards the criminal justice system)
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| 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
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- 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
- Not possible to compare data with the SCJS time series, due to methodological differences
- Estimates are subject to a degree of error (confidence intervals)
- Is not able to cover sensitive issues such as domestic abuse or drug use
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- 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 adjacent survey years, especially in rarer forms of crime (such as more serious offences)
- Estimates are subject to a degree of error (confidence intervals)
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| What other data is collected? |
- Additional statistical bulletins published, including on homicides, firearm offences and domestic abuse incidents
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- Public perceptions about crime
- Worry about crime
- Perceptions of the police
- Security consciousness when at home and when out
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- Public perceptions about crime
- Worry about crime and the perceived likelihood of being a victim of different types of crime
- 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
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