Violence-related incidents and underlying vulnerability

This project examines the relationship between violence and vulnerability at both an individual and a community level, including factors such as deprivation, mental health, drug use and alcohol addiction.

The research

Starting in 2021, this project examines the links between violent victimisation and different types of health and social vulnerability from a range of angles. 

Our current research focuses on three main areas:

• We are studying the prevalence of violent victimization across different social groups and how this has changed over time.
• We are using health data to identify underlying indicators of risk for repeat and non-repeat victims of violence.
• We are analysing geospatial data on victim and incident locations to determine how rates of violence are shaped by deprivation and availability of alcohol outlets.

The project has a Research Advisory Group (RAG), including representatives from Police Scotland, Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit, Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland, which provides oversight of the study.  The RAG is discussing the possibility of extending linkage to non-health data (e.g. Police recorded crime and the Scottish Offenders Index) which would enable further insights about how addressing specific types and patterns of vulnerability could reduce both violent victimisation and offending.

The data

This project aims to link and analyse:

• Information about violent injury from different health datasets 
• Unscheduled Care Datamart: Ambulance call outs, A&E admissions, Hospital admissions (SMR01) and Deaths records
• Scottish Drugs Misuse database.

There is also potential to link this dataset with the following for further work:

• Police Scotland datazone level data on recorded incidents of violence
• Scottish Offenders Index data on violent offenders.

Research team

Professor Susan McVie and Ana Morales

Publications, outputs and media coverage

When publications or outputs are available, they will be shared here. 

• 2019 - Data Insights: Violence and Vulnerability
• 2022 - BLOG - How is repeated violence linked to other types of vulnerability?
• 2022 - PAPER: Using Health Data to Analyse Repeat Victimisation in Scotland
• 2023 - PODCAST - Trends of violence across Scotland
• 2025 - Data Explained Violence
• 2026 - PAPER - Who benefited most from the crime drop?
• 2026 - POLICE BRIEFING- 'Who benefited most from the crime drop? Measuring stability and change in victimization inequality across different socio-demographic groups’