IMPACT OF CRIME ON VICTIMS: FINDINGS FROM THE 2000 SCOTTISH CRIME SURVEY
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
This report presents findings relating to victims of crime from the 2000 Scottish Crime Survey (SCS). The SCS measures crimes directly experienced by people living in private households. The 2000 SCS is the fifth survey of its kind to be carried out in Scotland since the early 1980s. The first two sweeps in 1982 and 1988 were conducted as part of the British Crime Survey and only covered Central and Southern Scotland. A separate SCS was introduced in 1993 which covered the whole of mainland Scotland, including the larger islands. This was repeated in 1996 and 2000.
One of the Survey's main aims is to monitor trends in crime. It does, however, also ask respondents about a range of other crime-related issues. This report summarises the data relating to public concerns about crime, emotional reactions to victimisation, other practical problems and inconveniences caused by incidents of crime and post-incident support needs, including awareness and use of Victim Support.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DATA
Some questions on perceptions and fear of crime are asked of all respondents to the SCS (n=5,059) and others are asked of around half the respondents - those who answered the 'B' version of the questionnaire (n=2,542). The questions dealing with reactions to victimisation and with Victim Support services are, of course, only asked of respondents who have fallen victim to crime. In the 2000 SCS, there were 1,474 cases available for analysis, representing some 1,070 respondents. The unit of analysis here is the incident and it is important to remember that some respondents will have been victimised more than once. This relatively small number of cases means that care must be exercised when interpreting the data and that there are limits to the type of analysis that can be conducted - for example it is not possible to control for crime type when examining other significant variables.
TYPES OF CRIME
Figure 1.1 below shows the distribution of different types of crimes reported to the 2000 SCS. Nearly two thirds of incidents were committed against property, the remainder being against people.
Figure 1.1: Distribution of Crimes in Scotland 1999
Notes: Source: 2000 SCS (all Scotland, weighted data) n=5,059
Throughout this report the above crime categories have been grouped into three broader categories:
- Household theft: housebreaking, vehicle theft and other household theft
- Vandalism: vehicle vandalism and home vandalism
- Personal offences: crimes involving violence and other personal theft
Other types of crime were reported by respondents to the SCS, but are not included in the main findings reports. These include threats (where it is not always possible to determine whether a crime actually occurred), sexual assaults (which are likely to be grossly underestimated by the crime survey) and other incidents where it is ambiguous whether a crime actually occurred. However, such incidents have been included in this report examining the impact on victims because the victim themselves considered a crime to have taken place.