Crime victimisation

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Crime victimisation

Proportion of adults who have been the victim of one or more crimes in the past year. Find out more about this indicator.

The proportion of adults experiencing crime has maintained. In 2019/20, around one-in-eight adults (11.9%) were victims of crime, unchanged from 2018/19 (12.4%), but down from around one-in-five (20.4%) in 2008/09.

In 2019/20:

there was no significant difference between men and women who were victims of SCJS crime in 2019/20
people aged 60 and over were least likely to have experienced crime in 2019/20 (6.9% compared to 18.3% of those aged 16-24, 14.7% of 25-44, and 11.5% of those aged 45-59)
adults living in the 15% most deprived areas were more likely than those living elsewhere in Scotland to have experienced crime in 2019/20 (16.5% compared to 11.2%)
people who had a disability were more likely to have experienced crime in 2019/20 than people who did not have a disability (15.0% compared to 11.0%)
the likelihood of experiencing crime in 2019/20 was greater for adults living in urban areas than for those in rural locations (13.0% compared to 6.9%)

This indicator can be broken down by age, gender, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, disability and urban/rural classification. These breakdowns can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.

To support social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, data collection for the 2020/21 SCJS did not start as face-to-face, in-home interviews were not possible. Due to this there was no 2020/21 SCJS publication.

In 2020 the Scottish Victimisation Telephone Survey (SVTS) was developed as a discrete collection to the SCJS to collect data whilst face-to-face interviewing on the SCJS was not possible. The SVTS is a social survey which asked people about their experiences and perceptions of crime, safety, and policing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the SVTS covers similar topics to the SCJS, there are some key differences, outlined in the Main Findings report, which mean SVTS and SCJS results are not comparable.

Most adults (91%) were not victims of any SVTS crime between September 2019 and September 2020, with around one-in-eleven (9%) adults in Scotland experiencing crime over this time period. Adults living in urban areas were more likely to have been a victim of SVTS crime than those living in rural areas (10% compared to 5%). Whereas, those aged 60 and over were less likely to have been a victim of crime compared to all other age groups. There was no statistically significant difference in the likelihood of experiencing crime between men and women, nor between those living in the 15% most deprived areas and those living elsewhere.

The SCJS restarted in November 2021 with a more resilient and flexible 2021/22 survey design. The 2021/22 SCJS has undergone significant development to enable the continuation of data collection during the pandemic. Therefore, although a central aim, it may not be possible to compare 2021/22 results to the SCJS time series. The results of the 2021/22 SCJS are expected to be published in mid-2023 when, in preparation for which, it will be determined if it is possible to update this indicator.