BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

Home  |  About Us  |  Contact Us  |  Help  |  A-Z Topic List
 
 
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
Home | Victims
Victims
On This Page
About this Topic

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) collects information from victims on nonfatal violent and property crimes, reported and not reported to the police, against persons age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. It produces national rates and levels of personal and property victimization.

  • Violent crimes measured include rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault.
  • Property crimes include household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and theft.

Back to Top
Data Collections & Surveys

Back to Top
Publications & Products


Campus Climate Survey Validation Study Final Technical Report Presents the results of a nine-school pilot test that was conducted to develop a campus climate survey that collects school-level data on sexual victimization of undergraduate students.
  PDF (5.7M) | ASCII file (398K)

Assessing the Coverage and Reliability of Subnational Geographic Identifiers in the NCVS Public-Use File Examines the coverage and reliability of the NCVS sample in the subnational geographic areas that can be created from the public-use files by combining Census region, population size, and urbanicity.
  PDF (2.3M)

Evaluation of Direct Variance Estimation, Estimate Reliability, and Confidence Intervals for the National Crime Victimization Survey Examines the feasibility of using direct variance estimation for the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).
  PDF (1.2M)

Developmental Estimates of Subnational Crime Rates Based on the National Crime Victimization Survey Presents rates of violent and property crime victimization for the 50 states and select metropolitan statistical areas, generated using smallarea estimation (SAE) methods.
  PDF (2.6M) | Excel (Zip format 325K)

BJS Awards More than $550K to Graduate Research Fellows Six doctoral students will share a total of $569,623 from the new Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today.
  Press Release

Victims of Identity Theft, 2014 Presents findings on the prevalence and nature of identity theft from the 2014 Identity Theft Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey.
  Press Release | Summary (PDF) | PDF (697KB) | ASCII file (41KB) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format)
Part of the Identity Theft Series

Victims of Identity Theft, 2014 17.6 MILLION U.S. RESIDENTS EXPERIENCED IDENTITY THEFT IN 2014
  Press Release
Part of the Identity Theft Series

Criminal Victimization, 2014 Presents 2014 estimates of rates and levels of criminal victimization in the United States.
  Press Release | PDF (745KB) | ASCII file (42KB) | Comma Separated Values (CSV) (Zip format)
Part of the Criminal Victimization Series

Criminal Victimization, 2014 VIOLENT CRIME RATE REMAINED UNCHANGED WHILE PROPERTY CRIME RATE DECLINED IN 2014
 

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2014 Presents data on crime and safety at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, and principals.
  Summary (PDF 172K) | Full Report (PDF 3.2M) | Tables (available at NCES) (Other)
Part of the Indicators of School Crime and Safety Series

Back to Top
Terms & Definitions

Age category The appropriate age category is determined by the respondent's age on the last day of the month preceding the interview.
 
Aggravated assault An attack or attempted attack with a weapon, regardless of whether an injury occurred, and an attack without a weapon when serious injury results.
With injury - An attack without a weapon when serious injury results or an attack with a weapon involving any injury. Serious injury includes broken bones, lost teeth, internal injuries, loss of consciousness, and any unspecified injury requiring two or more days of hospitalization.

Threatened with a weapon - Threat or attempted attack by an offender armed with a gun, knife, or other object used as a weapon that does not result in victim injury.
 
Annual household income The total household income for the 12 months preceding the interview. Includes wages, salaries, net income from businesses or farms, pensions, interest, dividends, rent, and any other source of monetary income of the head of household and all household members.
 
Assault An unlawful physical attack or threat of attack. Assaults may be classified as aggravated or simple. Rape, attempted rape, and sexual assaults are excluded from this category, as well as robbery and attempted robbery. The severity of assaults ranges from minor threats to nearly fatal incidents.
 
Collection year The set of victimizations reported to the NCVS in interviews conducted during the same calendar year. This set may include victimizations which occurred in the previous calendar year, due to the retrospective nature of the NCVS interview. Collection year data are used in tables beginning in 1996. See "Data year."
 
Back to Top
Related Links

Back to Top