Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland: Monitoring Framework, 2025

Strengths

Limitations

Scottish Crime and Justice Survey

• Large, nationally representative survey that can be used for looking at long-term trends across households in Scotland
• Includes crimes not reported to the police, and uses methods (e.g. a self-completion section for Partner abuse) that may allow for more detail on crimes
• Consistent methodology used over time

• Subject to sampling errors, such as the respondent not recalling or disclosing past events
• Only covers households; crimes against businesses or non-household residents (such as tourists, or those in grouped housing) are excluded
• Does not include information on crimes experienced by those under 16, nor low volume crimes

Police Recorded Crime

• Good measure of crimes that are well-recorded and reported to the police
• Covers a broader range of crimes and population than the SCJS
• Useful for lower-volume crimes that are challenging for sample methods to capture
• Can have a short lag time between occurrence of crime and reporting, so it is useful for examining emerging trends

• Subject to changes in recording practices, as well as changes in police activity, which can influence trends shown
• Does not include crimes not reported to, or recorded by, the police

Emergency Hospital Admissions for Assault Data

• Includes data on individuals that may be hard to access through other methods (e.g. who are not residents of households or who do not report to the police)
• Unaffected by police activity

• Only includes those admitted under an appropriate emergency hospital admissions code and excludes those not admitted or treated in outpatient settings
• Relies on information recorded by the hospital, and is dependent on a clinician’s judgement about the cause of an admission