Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2023/24: Main findings

Focus on veterans

Since 2021/22 the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey has included questions to gather information on prevalence of veterans, as well as their experiences and views of crime and justice. All respondents were asked “have you previously served in the UK Armed Forces?”, and the options presented to respondents were: [1]

1. No
2. Yes, previously served in regular Armed Forces
3. Yes, previously served in reserve Armed Forces

As with other questions in the survey, respondents could choose to answer ‘don’t know’ or refuse to answer.[2]

Summary

SCJS findings suggest that just under one-in-twenty-five (3.8%) respondents have previously served in either the regular or reserve UK Armed Forces. Veteran status was found to vary significantly across the population, in particular males are more likely to have served than females (7.0% compared to 0.9%), and older adults (60+) are more likely than younger adults (16-24) (6.4% compared to 2.0%).

The victimisation rate was not found to be statistically different between veterans and non-veterans. Likewise, opinions on the change in local crime rate and access to justice did not show a difference between veterans and non-veterans.

Prevalence of veterans in the latest SCJS findings

When looking at veteran status of any kind, 3.8% of all respondents were veterans. The vast majority of respondents never served in the UK Armed Forces (96.1%). Just under one-in-thirty (2.9%) have previously served in the regular Armed Forces and around one-in-one-hundred (1.1%) have served in the reserve Armed Forces. Full results of this question are shown in Table 9.1 below, while Table 9.2 shows that these results are consistent with the previous survey in 2021/22. [3],[4]

Table 9.1: The vast majority of SCJS respondents have not previously served in the UK Armed Forces, but veteran status varies across the population.

Percentage of people who previously served in the UK Armed Forces, 2023/24.

Variable: QDVET.

Table 9.2: The proportion of the population who are veterans has been consistent across the two surveys where this has been asked.

Percentage of people who previously served in the UK Armed Forces, 2021/22 to 2023/24.

Variable: QDVET.

As shown in Table 9.1, veteran status varied across the population. For example, veteran status was more commonly seen in males compared to females (7.0% compared to 0.9% respectively).

A higher proportion of older respondents were veterans: 6.4% for 60+ compared to 2.0% for 16-24

The population subgroup with the highest proportion of veterans of any was males aged 60 and over, with around one-in-eight (12.4%) people in this group previously serving in the Armed Forces.

There was no statistically significant difference in veteran status found on the basis of deprivation, disability, or by urban/rural location.

Making comparisons between the veteran and non-veteran population

The information gathered from the recently introduced veteran status question can be used to further analyse other questions from the SCJS and investigate whether the experiences and opinions of veterans differs from the rest of the population.

However, as demonstrated above, the prevalence of veterans varies significantly across different population groups. The biggest differences seen are in sex and age, where males are more likely to be veterans than females, as are older people compared to younger people.

Due to this, any attempt to compare veterans to non-veterans is likely to be influenced by these other demographic differences mentioned. While it might be useful to frame the analysis like this in the most simple terms, it is unlikely to show any effect of veteran status in isolation.

To partially overcome this issue, the analysis presented in the following sections will also provide a comparison of two groups that share some demographic similarities - namely males over the age of 25 who are veterans and males over the aged of 25 who are not veterans. This allows other demographic differences to be controlled for and may provide a better estimation of the effect of veteran status to be presented.

Rate of victimisation amongst veterans

Overall, 19.9% of respondents were the victim of any type of crime within the scope of the survey in 2021/22.

The three broad categories of crime picked up by the survey are violent crime, property crime, and fraud and computer misuse; with the estimated prevalence in 2023/24 being 2.9%, 10.3%, and 9.5% respectively.

When analysing the victimisation rates for all veteran respondents, it was found that there was no difference in the rates between veterans and non-veterans for overall crime, as well as for violent crime, property crime, and fraud & computer misuse individually.

Even when using the approach outlined above to restrict the analysis to more comparable subsections of the population (i.e. male respondents aged 25 and over), there was still no difference found in the victimisation rates between veterans and non-veterans.

Therefore, findings from this sweep of the SCJS indicate that the likelihood of being a victim of crime does not vary by veteran status.

Feelings of safety and perceptions of crime in their local area

Chapter 9.5 in the 2021/22 main findings report provides an analysis of veteran responses to questions of feelings of safety and perceptions of crime in their local area. These findings showed that veterans felt more safe than the rest of the population and were less likely to perceive specific crime as common in their area. However, most of these differences were not true when restricting the analysis to only veterans and non-veterans who were male and over the age of 25. On examining the responses to these questions for 2023/24, the results show no difference to those for 2021/22.

National Performance Framework indicators

Alongside the overall prevalence of victimisation, the SCJS is used by Scotland’s National Performance Framework for two other indicators: perceptions of local crime rate; and access to justice.

A majority of individuals believe the crime rate has either remained stable or decreased, with just over three-quarters (70.5%) of people answering this way. Veteran status was found to have no effect on how people perceived changes in the crime rate in their local area, and this remained true when comparing only veterans and non-veterans who were males aged 25 or over.

The access to justice indicator asks respondents how confident they are that the Scottish criminal justice system makes sure everyone has access to the justice system if they need it. Around three in ten (69.3%) people answer that they are very or fairly confident for this question. As with the other indicators, no difference was detected between veterans and non-veterans here, and again this remained true when comparing only veterans and non-veterans who were male and over the age of 25.