Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS)

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey is a large-scale social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland.

About the study

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) is a large-scale social survey which asks people about their experiences and perceptions of crime in Scotland. It is an annual survey of around 5,000 people living all across Scotland. Addresses invited to take part in the survey are selected at random and will receive a letter informing them of their selection. It is carried out for the Scottish Government by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) and Ipsos.

Why take part?

Findings from crime surveys in Scotland have been used by policy makers across the public sector, academia and third sector to help measure and understand the nature of crime in Scotland, target resources and monitor the impact of initiatives since the 1980s.

The main aims of the SCJS are to:

  • provide a valid and reliable measure of crime, providing a complementary measure of crime to police recorded crime statistics
  • enable people in Scotland to tell us about their experiences of, and attitudes to, a range of issues related to crime, policing and the justice system, including crime not reported to the police
  • examine trends over time in the number and nature of crimes in Scotland
  • examine the varying risk and characteristics of crime for different groups of Scotland’s population

What will taking part involve?

An interviewer from ScotCen carrying a photo ID will call at your doorstep. The interviewer will randomly select an adult in your household (aged 16 or over) to take part in the study and will then arrange a convenient time for interview.

The interview itself will take place face to face, and will last around 40 minutes. You do not need to do anything to prepare for the interview. The interview will ask about your views on crime and your experiences of crime in the past year. There are also some questions about your opinions on organisations like the police, courts and prisons. You will be asked to complete some of the questions on your own. 

Call freephone 0800 652 3751 or email scottishcrime@scotcen.org.uk quoting the serial number at the top of the letter you have received if you would like to arrange a convenient time for the interviewer to visit. We would appreciate it if you could make others in your household aware that they may be selected for interview.

Why have I been selected to take part?

Your address was chosen at random from the Postcode Address File, a list of every address held by the Post Office and available to the public. Only the addresses chosen have the opportunity to take part.

What will happen to any information I give?

Once all the responses have been collated, the information is used by the Scottish Government and organisations like the police to help make important decisions which affect us all. This information is collected in the public interest to help us to understand who is most likely to experience crime, how crime affects victims and to check if current policies are working.

We will treat the information you give in accordance with data protection legislation. All responses are anonymised and stored securely only for research purposes by the Scottish Government and other authorised research institutes.

No one looking at the findings will be able to identify you in any way. Personal details, like your name and address, will only be known to the survey team processing the survey results at ScotCen, Ipsos and the Scottish Government.

Contact us

For more information, please see https://www.gov.scot/collections/scottish-crime-and-justice-survey/. Alternatively, please email scottishcrime@scotcen.org.uk or call us free on 0800 652 3751.

You can also contact the survey team at Scottish Government on 0131 244 3012 or email scjs@gov.scot.