International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS), 1989-2000 (ICPSR 3803)

Principal Investigator(s): ICVS International Working Group; Alvazzi del Frate, Anna, United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Turin, Italy; van Dijk, Jan J.M., United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Vienna, Austria; van Kesteren, John, United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Turin, Italy; Mayhew, Pat, Home Office, London, United Kingdom

Summary: The International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS) is a far-reaching program of fully standardized surveys investigating householders' experience of crime in different countries. The data were collected in four waves: 1989, 1992, 1996, and 2000. The main focus of the ICVS is whether the respondent was a victim of theft of or from vehicles, other thefts, vandalism, robbery, pickpocketing, sexual harassment or violence, or assault. The surveys also investigated the frequency of victimization... (more info)

Series: International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS) Series

• This data is freely available.

WARNING: This study is over 150MB in size and may take several minutes to download on a typical internet connection.

ICVS International Working Group, Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Jan J.M. van Dijk, John van Kesteren, and Pat Mayhew. INTERNATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY (ICVS), 1989-2000. ICPSR version. Netherlands: University of Leiden/Turin, Italy: United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) [producers], 2002. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2003. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03803.v1

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03803.v1

Export Citation:

• RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.)
• EndNote XML (EndNote X4.0.1 or higher)

Summary:   The International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS) is a far-reaching program of fully standardized surveys investigating householders' experience of crime in different countries. The data were collected in four waves: 1989, 1992, 1996, and 2000. The main focus of the ICVS is whether the respondent was a victim of theft of or from vehicles, other thefts, vandalism, robbery, pickpocketing, sexual harassment or violence, or assault. The surveys also investigated the frequency of victimization, reasons for not reporting a crime to the police, familiarity with the offender in the case of a sexual offense, physical violence, injuries, fear of crime in the respondent's local area, use of help agencies for victims, satisfaction with police behavior, preferred legal sanctions, punishment, and length of detention for offenders, safety precautions when leaving home, possession of a gun, burglar alarm, or insurance, and frequency of going out. Some of the 2000 surveys were administered nationally and some were restricted to a main city within a given country. The ICVS National Survey Data cover the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Catalonia, Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, France, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The ICVS City Survey Data cover the following countries: Albania, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Ukraine, and Zambia.

Subject Terms:   citizen crime reporting, commercial theft, crime, crime prevention, crime rates, developing nations, fear of crime, injuries, international crime statistics, law enforcement, nations, offenses, petty theft, police performance, punishment, reactions to crime, robbery, sanctions, security systems, sexual assault, sexual harassment, sex offenses, vandalism, victim services, victimization, violence

Geographic Coverage:   Albania, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Catalonia, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia (Republic), Hungary, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, South Africa, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, Ukraine, United States, Wales, Zambia, Global

Universe:   Persons aged 16 and over living in Albania, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Catalonia, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England and Wales, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, South Africa, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, Ukraine, the United States, and Zambia.

Data Types:   survey data

Data Collection Notes:

(1) The principal investigators request that any publications using ICVS data be sent to John van Kesteren, UNICRI, Viale Maestri del Lavoro, 10, 10127 Torino, Italy. (2) Researchers are to note that some of the surveys were administered nationally and some were restricted to a main city in the country. The principal investigators request that all users of datasets be careful in selecting and comparing data. Data users are to consult the identification variables I001 through I009 and the weighting variables in the database and the codebook. (3) The codebook and data collection instruments for this collection are provided by ICPSR as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.

Sample:   Samples of 1,000 to 2,000 cases were drawn from the population of each country's largest city. In a few countries, the surveys covered several cities by random dialing. In some countries, there was an additional sample of 200 cases from rural areas, or a national sample was taken. Sampling was generally hierarchical. It began with identifying administrative areas within the city, followed by a step-by-step procedure aiming at identifying areas, streets, blocks, households, and, finally, household members aged 16 and over. No substitution of the selected respondent was allowed. There were some exceptions to this procedure. In Finland, a random selection of individuals was drawn from the population register. In Northern Ireland and some rural parts of Spain, telephone penetration was low and interviews were taken face-to-face with some computer assistance.

Data Source:

computer-assisted telephone interviews and personal interviews

Original ICPSR Release:  2003-10-30

Version History:

• 2006-01-18 File CB3803.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

• List all 1375 variables in this study

• Search the variables in this study

Use any of the notification links to add this study to your RSS feed; you will then receive notification if the study is substantively updated.

• Citations exports are provided above.

• Export Study-level metadata (does not include variable-level metadata)

  • DDI Codebook or DDI Lifecycle

  • Dublin Core

  • MARC21 XML

  • DataCite XML

If you're looking for collection-level metadata rather than an individual metadata record, please visit our Metadata Records page.

• View Usage of this Study