2.4 Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the main source of information on criminal victimization in the United States and, in addition to the UCR, a key official source for crime data. The NCVS helps fill in gaps that the UCR collections cannot because the UCR data only includes crimes known to law enforcement. Every year, the U.S. Census Bureau administers the NCVS and gathers data on the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization from approximately 135,000 households composed of nearly 225,000 individuals. For those age 12 or older, the NCVS collects information on nonfatal personal crimes, such as rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, and personal larceny, as well as on household property crimes, like burglary or motor vehicle theft. The collected information includes both crimes that have been reported to police and crimes that have not (figure 2.13).
The NCVS asks participants about their age, sex, race and ethnicity, marital status, education level, and income, in addition to whether the person experienced any victimization in that given year. For each reported victimization, it captures information about the age, race and ethnicity, and sex of the person who committed the offense. Information is also collected about the victim-offender relationship, characteristics of the crime (e.g., time and place of the crime, whether or not weapons were used, the nature of their injury, and any financial consequences), whether the crime was reported to the police, reasons why the crime did or did not get reported, and the victim’s experience with the criminal justice system. If you are interested in exploring this dataset, you can visit the NCVS Dashboard [Website].
The NCVS is a form of self-report data. Self-report data is that which comes directly from individuals about their own experiences through methods like surveys or interviews. You can think of this form of data as being “straight from the horse’s mouth.” Regarding the NCVS, we are going directly to the people who have experienced some type of victimization. Other forms of self-report research may seek to understand different population’s experiences. For example, a researcher might conduct self-report research with incarcerated persons to better understand their backgrounds, motivations, and more. Rather than just studying their arrest record, we could ask them to tell us about their lives.
Challenges and Limitations
Self-report statistics can be revealing and beneficial because they can help us discover problems we have been unaware of, like the misuse of prescription drugs or other victimless crimes. We can also uncover offenses that are not as serious, such as shoplifting, and are less likely to be known to police. But just as other official data sources have challenges and limitations, so too do self-report data and victimization surveys.
Potential inaccuracies in self-report data can be purposeful or accidental. Some respondents may have issues accurately remembering victimization, which can lead to underreporting or overreporting. If they were traumatized from the crime, events may blur together, or timing may be mistaken (an event that occurred in 2017 may be reported as 2018). Other times, respondents may lie or omit information for various reasons, such as shame, fear, confusion, or a lack of trust. For example, if the victim is uncomfortable with the interviewer, they may not want to tell them that their partner abused them out of fear it will get reported to police. Furthermore, the NCVS does not include responses from those under age 12, meaning that the vast amount of child abuse victimization will not show up in this data source.
The NCVS focuses on victimization, but consider how these issues may apply when we ask individuals to honestly report their own crimes. Respondents may exaggerate or underreport their criminal behavior for various reasons. For example, some teenagers may not even know something they did was illegal and thus will not report it as a crime. Furthermore, if we do not survey a large enough number of individuals, we may miss out on important information and get results that cannot be generalized across all populations. Despite these limitations, the NCVS helps fill in gaps in the UCR and gives a voice to victims of crime. See figure 2.14 for a summary of some of the pros and cons with the NCVS.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Survey collection has been ongoing for decades | Issues with accuracy due to dishonesty, exaggeration, information withholding, or difficulty remembering |
| Shows victimization that does not show up in the UCR | Does not account for victimization in unhoused populations, institutionalized populations, or in children under 12 |
| Gives more detailed accounts of victim-offender relationships, effects of victimization, and trends in populations most victimized | Cannot include information on murder and primarily focuses on street crimes |
| Has a high response rate | Crime counting issues—series victimizations (e.g., repeated incidents of domestic violence) only counted once |
| Follows same households over a 3-year period |
Check Your Knowledge
Licenses and Attributions for Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey
Open Content, Original
“Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey” by Taryn VanderPyl is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Revised by Jessica René Peterson.
“Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey Question Set” was created by ChatGPT and is not subject to copyright. Edits for relevance, alignment, and meaningful answer feedback by Colleen Sanders are licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Open Content, Shared Previously
Figure 2.13. “silhouette of person on window” by Maxim Hopman is licensed under the Unsplash License.
Figure 2.14. “What Does the NCVS Really Tell Us? Table” by Jessica René Peterson is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
