Getting started with the Scottish Crime Surveys
1. Which dataset do I want?
There are a number of Scottish Crime
and Justice Survey (SCJS), Scottish Crime
and Victimisation Survey (SCVS) and Scottish Crime Survey (SCS) datasets available.
The data and documentation can be accessed from the ESDS
web site.
In 1982 and 1988 the Crime Survey
in Scotland formed part of the British Crime Survey (BCS). The Scottish data
from the 1982 and 1988 BCS are held separately at ESDS under
SNs 4368 and 4599, as they have different access conditions to the main British
Crime Survey. The Scottish part of the 1988 BCS was also known as the Scottish
Areas Crime Survey.
In April 2008 the Scottish
Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) replaced the SCVS which had in turn replaced the SCS in 2004.
2. Consulting the documentation
It will not be possible to analyse
the SCVS and SCS without reference to the documentation. Documentation is available
for viewing before downloading/ordering the data, however you will also obtain
the documentation if you download the data as a zipped file. The documentation
contains:
o information about how the survey
is conducted
o information about which variables are available
o information about how the data is coded
o the survey questionnaires
3. Registering for the data
Once you have decided which data to use for your project you will need to register
with ESDS to obtain the data. Information about obtaining data can be found
on the Accessing Data
web page.
Registered users can download/order
a large and increasing number of datasets direct from the (usually in SPSS,
STATA or tab-delimited formats) via its online catalogue record and via the
download/order section of the Major
Studies web pages.
4. Downloading the data
Once registered, you can download
the data directly as a zipped ASCII, STATA or SPSS file. This download will
also include necessary documentation
5. Analysing the data using an appropriate
analysis package
Because the SCVS and SCS datasets are microdata you will need to analyse them
using an appropriate package, to do this you will need to use a package like
SPSS, STATA or SAS.
If you are unfamiliar with these packages
you can find a STATA
guide on the ESDS Government pages, which uses examples from the Labour
Force Survey. A guide to SPSS is also available, based on the HSE 2002 teaching
dataset. Several organisations offer introductory SPSS and STATA courses. CCSR
at the University of Manchester offers one-day courses although there is a charge.
Details of these courses can be obtained through the CCSR
Short Course Pages.
6. Communicating with other users
and obtaining support
The ESDS-govsurveys
JISCmail list is an email list you can join to hear about events and other
news relating to the large-scale government list, including the SCS. To join
the list click on the above link to the ESDS-govsurveys list web page or email
listserv@jiscmail.ac.uk with the following message:
subscribe esds-govsurveys firstname
secondname
A BCS
JISCmail list is an email list which allows users to discuss the British
Crime Survey with each other and post queries they may have. It is a good way
to find out what other people are doing with the data and to hear about future
developments. To join the list click on the above link to the BCS list web page
or email listserv@jiscmail.ac.uk with the following message:
subscribe crim-bcs-users firstname
secondname
If you hit a problem with the data
while doing your work feel free to contact us. Queries relating to the large-scale
government datasets should be sent to:
govsurveys@esds.ac.uk
Alternatively you can telephone +44
(0)161 275 1980.
A list of Frequently Asked Questions for the Scottish Crime Survey is also available.
7. Publishing
We need to let other researchers and
data depositors know what publications are available using the SCVS or SCS.
If you publish using the data, please contact us at govsurveys@esds.ac.uk and
give us details of your publication. If you would be happy for us to publish
something on our web site, for example the research
story on smoking, please let us know.
Data collectors and distributors should
be acknowledged in publications.
