DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-5756-1
title: Scottish Crime Survey, 2003
title: Scottish Crime and Justice Surveys, 1993-
title: SCJS; SCVS; SCS

description: The &lt;i&gt;Scottish Crime and Justice Survey&lt;/i&gt; (SCJS) is a social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland. The survey is an important resource for both the government and public of Scotland. Respondents are selected at random from the Postal Address File and participation in the survey is entirely voluntary. The main aims of the SCJS are to:&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;provide reliable statistics on people's experience of crime in Scotland, including services provided to victims of crime&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;assess the varying risk of crime for different groups of people in the population&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;examine trends in the level and nature of crime in Scotland over time&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;collect information about people's experiences of, and attitudes on a range of crime and justice related issues&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;An important role of the SCJS is to provide an alternative and complementary measure of crime to police recorded crime statistics. For further details of the scope and methodology of the SCJS, please see documentation. Information about the survey and links to publications may be found on the Scottish Government's &lt;a title="Scottish Crime and Justice Survey" href="https://www.gov.scot/collections/scottish-crime-and-justice-survey/"&gt;Scottish Crime and Justice Survey&lt;/a&gt; webpages.&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;i&gt;Background and history of the SCJS&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br&gt;Previous surveys of victimisation in Scotland began with the Scottish components of the 1982 and 1988 sweeps of the &lt;i&gt;British Crime Survey&lt;/i&gt; (BCS) (held at the Archive under SNs 4368 and 4599) The Scottish element of the 1988 BCS was also known as the &lt;i&gt;Scottish Areas Crime Survey&lt;/i&gt; and coverage was limited in those early surveys to the areas south of the Caledonian Canal. From 2012, the BCS has been renamed the &lt;i&gt;Crime Survey for England and Wales&lt;/i&gt; (CSEW) (held under GN 33174). &lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;The first independent Scotland-only crime survey was commissioned by the Scottish Office in 1993 under the title of the &lt;i&gt;Scottish Crime Survey&lt;/i&gt; (SCS) and was followed by repeated sweeps in 1996 (both years held together under SN 3813), and again in 2000 (SN 4542) and 2003 (SN 5756). In 2004 the survey underwent both a name change, to the &lt;i&gt;Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey&lt;/i&gt; (SCVS) (SN 5757), and a major methodological change, with a move away from in-home face-to-face interviewing to telephone interviewing. However, the 2006 SCVS (SN 5784) returned to face-to-face interviewing after it was shown that the robustness of the data produced by the 2004 telephone survey could not be substantiated. From 2008-2009, the series name was changed to the present title, the &lt;i&gt;Scottish Crime and Justice Survey&lt;/i&gt;, and it moved to a repeated annual cross-sectional schedule based on financial year. From 2012-13 the SCJS moved from annual to biennial survey covering the financial year &lt;span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"&gt;however, the 2014-15 survey was the last biennial survey and currently the SCJS is conducted on an annual basis. &lt;/span&gt;See the documentation for further details.&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Special Licence data&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;From 2012-13 only the Main Questionnaire data are available under standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. The Victim Form and Self-Completion data are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard EUL. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version.&lt;br&gt;
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 The 2003 SCS was the sixth such survey to be carried out in Scotland.&lt;br&gt;
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