Data Files and Variables

Datasets

Figure 1 and Table 1 in the Criminal Victimization, 2015 report describe victimization rates for violent and property crimes in 2015. To calculate those, you will use three data files within ICPSR Study 36448, which you can download from the NCVS 2015 study home page:

You can download the datasets by clicking on the links for SPSS, Stata or R, depending on which software you will use for the exercises in this learning guide. Download and rename the following files:

1. Download and save DS2: Household Record-Type File. Rename the file "households2015".
2. Download and save DS3: Person Record-Type File. Rename the file "persons2015".
3. Download and save DS4: Incident Record-Type File. Rename the file "incidents2015".

Preexisting Variables

In addition to the variables that you will create, this exercise makes use of three variables from the incidents file. These variables are described below with variable name, followed by the variable label in parentheses.

• V4022 (IN WHAT CITY, TOWN, VILLAGE) describes the location of the crime. In keeping with BJS practice, you will exclude any crimes that occur outside the U.S.
• V4529 (TOC CODE (NEW, NCVS)) is a list of the types of crimes experienced. Codes 1 through 20 represent violent crimes and 31 to 59 are property crimes. Codes 21, 22, and 23 include purse snatching and pick-pocketing. For these data, BJS does not technically consider 21-23 to be either violent crimes (since they do not involve the use of threat or force) or property crimes (which are defined here as committed against a household).
• SERIES_WEIGHT (VICTIMIZATION WEIGHT ADJUSTED FOR SERIES CRIMES (2015 Q1)) is an adjusted victimization weight variable that accounts for the number of occurrences in series crimes. Datasets in the NCVS store the original counts as collected from each respondent in the sample. In order to generalize those counts to the U.S. as a whole, you will need to "weight" the data, adjusting the influence of each case so that statistics you produce are representative of the entire U.S. population.

You will need two variables from the persons file for this exercise.

• WGTPERCY (ADJUSTED PERSON WEIGHT - COLLECTION YEAR) is the weight variable for sampled persons (see the SERIES_WEIGHT description above).
• V3001 (PERSON RECORD TYPE) indicates that a case describes a person. The code "3" is used for every case in the persons data file. You will use this to simply identify the weighted number of persons for a denominator.
• Note: Information about NCVS variable naming conventions

  In NCVS, 2000-level variables describe households and head of household characteristics, 3000-level variables describe person characteristics, and 4000-level variables describe incident characteristics.

If you follow the typed syntax guide, you will also make use of two similar variables from the households file.

• WGTHHCY (ADJUSTED HOUSEHOLD WEIGHT - COLLECTION YEAR) is the weight variable for sampled households (see the SERIES_WEIGHT description above).
• V2001 (HOUSEHOLD RECORD TYPE) indicates that a case describes a household. The code "2" is used for every case in the households data file. You will use this to simply identify the weighted number of households for a denominator.