The Scottish Government

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 2006 Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey ( SCVS) was a household survey of people's experiences and perceptions of crime, based on interviews with 4,988 adults (aged 16 or over) throughout Scotland carried out between June and December 2006. Previous sweeps of the survey took place in 1993, 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2004.

The principal focus of the SCVS is to monitor the extent of victimisation in Scotland by asking respondents about their experiences of personal and household crime. The victimisation rates discussed in this report are based on all incidents of crime reported as having taken place between the 1st April 2005 and 31st March 2006.

Estimates produced by the survey complement the official police recorded crime statistics by estimating the extent of crimes which are experienced by households and individuals regardless of whether they are reported to, or recorded by, the police.

In addition, the SCVS looks to explore the experiences of victims, as well as public perceptions and attitudes towards crime, worry about and levels of crime, and agencies within the Scottish Criminal Justice System.

This report presents the main findings from the 2006 SCVS and provides comparisons with previous sweeps of the survey.

Chapter 1 explains the background to the survey and provides an explanation of both the purpose and limitations of victimisation surveys of this nature. Chapter 2 presents the estimates of the extent of crime and victimisation in Scotland in 2005/6. Chapter 3 looks at the experience of victims, focusing on the unequal risks of being a victim of crime in this period across key demographic variables; where, when and why incidents took place; reporting of incidents to the police and subsequent experience of the Criminal Justice System; the impact that crime has had on those who have been victims; and access to support. Chapter 4 explores public attitudes towards crime; worry about crime; perceptions of levels of crime in both the local area and Scotland as a whole; and experience of the police and the criminal justice system.

The findings from the survey are summarised below. Some key messages are as follows:

• The total number of crimes estimated by the survey (for 2005/6) was higher than in 2003/4, due to an increase in minor assaults. The number of household crimes was similar between the 2 survey sweeps.
• Longer term, the incidence rates of household crimes have fallen, specifically housebreaking and theft from motor vehicles, while personal crime (driven by the number of minor assaults) has increased.
• The trends in household crime are similar to those identified in England and Wales ¹, where the incidence of housebreaking and vehicle crime have decreased since the mid 1990s. In England and Wales, however, the incidence of violent crime (including assault) has remained constant in recent years.
• The levels of repeat victimisation were similar to those seen in previous years (between 21% and 31% of people who had experienced a particular type of crime in 2005/6 were a victim of this type of crime more than once).
• One in 10 crimes took place in or around the respondent's workplace, and this was higher than average for assault and 'other personal theft'.
• The majority of violent crime took place at the weekend (56% of incidents).
• The public perceived that household crime was becoming less common; more generally, public perceptions appeared to reflect the actual levels of victimisation for many types of crime.
• Most people who had been in contact with the police or the Procurator Fiscal were satisfied with the way the matter had been dealt with, although satisfaction was lower than average among victims of crime.

Extent of Crime in Scotland

• Combining the estimates of personal and household crime as measured by the SCVS suggest that just over one million crimes took place in Scotland between 1st April 2005 and 31st March 2006. This represents a 13% increase on the number of crimes estimated to have taken place in a comparable 12 month period in 2003/4, but is lower than the number of crimes estimated to have taken place in the 2002 calendar year. Around one in 5 people (22%) had been the victim of at least one household or personal crime; there has been no statistically significant change in this figure in recent years.
• Crimes against property represented 56% of all crimes committed, with the remaining 44% being crimes against the person. The risk of an individual being a victim of property crime over this period was correspondingly higher than the risk of being victim of personal crime (16%, or 1 in 6, compared with 7%, 1 in 14). However, as will be outlined later, this risk was not evenly spread across the population, with some groups more likely to be at risk than others.
• The risk of being a victim of household crime has risen slightly but not significantly since 2003/4 (from 15% to 16%) but remains significantly lower than the risk in 2002 (18%). However, the risk of being a victim of personal crime is at its highest since the survey began (7%), mainly due to a rise in the rate of minor assaults, as noted below.
• Vandalism accounted one in 4 (26%) of all crimes committed in 2005/6. The incidence of both property and vehicle vandalism peaked in 2002 and has been falling since. The prevalence rate, or risk of vandalism is higher than for any other type of crime, with 8% of households reporting an incident of vandalism in 2005/6.
• Housebreaking (including attempted housebreaking) represented 6% of all crimes committed in 2005/6. Survey estimates and police recorded crime figures show that the incidence rate for this type of crime has been falling since the survey began in 1993 (a trend which has also been shown by the British Crime Survey which covers England and Wales). The risk of being the victim of this type of crime was 2%, which is 3 times lower than the risk in 1992.
• Violence, as measured by the SCVS (minor and serious assaults plus robbery) accounted for 30 per cent of all crimes committed. The vast majority (86%) of these incidents were minor assaults (which involved no, or negligible, injuries). The incidence rate for violent crime has been rising since 1995, primarily as a result of an ever increasing number of minor assaults: in 2005/6 there were 655 incidents of minor assault per 10,000 adults, a 35 per cent increase from 2003/4 and the continuation of an increase since 1993.

Unequal Risk of Crime

• Those aged 16 to 24 (both male and female) were most likely to become victims of personal crime.
• These differences were principally the result of a higher risk of being the victim of violent crime, and in particular assault: 16% of 16 to 24 year old males had been a victim of assault, as had 8% of females in this age group.
• Those aged 60 or over were the least likely to become a victim of either personal or household crime.
• Levels of repeat victimisation (experiencing the same type of crime more than once in 2005/6) were similar to those recorded in previous years: repeat victimisation was higher for violent crime and vandalism than for housebreaking and motor vehicle theft.
• Overall, 13% of people had experienced one incident of crime in 2005/6, while 8% had been the victim of multiple crimes (more than one incident of any type of crime).

Reporting Incidents to the Police

• The proportion of offences reported to the police as measured by the SCVS has been falling since 1999. From the 2006 SCVS, 36% of personal and 38% of household crimes were reported. Crimes involving theft, particularly vehicle thefts and housebreakings, were more likely to be reported than other crimes.

Public Perceptions of Crime

• Crime was considered to be a problem in Scotland (either 'a big problem' or 'a bit of a problem') by over 9 in 10 respondents (93%). The only issues considered more problematic were alcohol and drug abuse.
• Compared with the 2003 survey, a significantly lower proportion of respondents (32% compared with 42%) felt that that there was more crime in their local area than 2 years previously.
• There was a decrease in the proportion of people who felt that acquisitive crimes (housebreakings, vehicle thefts and thefts from vehicles) were common in their local area from that recorded in the 2003 survey. There was however no decline in the proportion who felt that violent crime (assaults, people being mugged or robbed) were common. Given that the survey reported an increase in violent crime since 2003, with no increase in housebreakings or vehicle crime, there appears to be some correlation between public perception and trends in prevalence.
• The crime which respondents were most likely to be worried about was vehicle vandalism, but 4 in 10 respondents also worried about having their home broken into, being mugged or robbed and being assaulted. Compared with other crimes, individuals were actually at most risk of vandalism (especially vehicle vandalism) and assaults; thus in general respondents appeared to fear the crimes for which they are at most at risk.

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