National Crime Victimization Survey, Concatenated File, [United States], 1992-2016 (ICPSR 36834)
Version Date: Oct 31, 2019 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
United States. Bureau of Justice Statistics
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36834.v3
Version V3 (see more versions)
Summary View help for Summary
In October 2019, NACJD released a revised set of 1992-2016 NCVS Public-Use Files. The National Crime Victimization Survey, Concatenated File, [United States], 1992-2016: Revised Version (ICPSR 37241) data collection contains the official 1992-2016 NCVS data and replaces the previously published National Crime Victimization Survey, Concatenated File, [United States], 1992-2016 (ICPSR 36834) Public-Use Files. The initial files remain available for research purposes.
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), previously called the National Crime Survey (NCS), has been collecting data on personal and household victimization through an ongoing survey of a nationally-representative sample of residential addresses since 1973. The NCVS was designed with four primary objectives: (1) to develop detailed information about the victims and consequences of crime, (2) to estimate the number and types of crimes not reported to the police, (3) to provide uniform measures of selected types of crimes, and (4) to permit comparisons over time and types of areas. Beginning in 1992, the survey categorizes crimes as "personal" or "property." Personal crimes include rape and sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, and purse-snatching/pocket-picking, while property crimes include burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, and vandalism. Each respondent is asked a series of screen questions designed to determine whether she or he was victimized during the six-month period preceding the first day of the month of the interview. A "household respondent" is also asked to report on crimes against the household as a whole (e.g., burglary, motor vehicle theft). The data include type of crime, month, time, and location of the crime, relationship between victim and offender, characteristics of the offender, self-protective actions taken by the victim during the incident and results of those actions, consequences of the victimization, type of property lost, whether the crime was reported to police and reasons for reporting or not reporting, and offender use of weapons, drugs, and alcohol. Basic demographic information such as age, race, gender, and income is also collected, to enable analysis of crime by various subpopulations.
This dataset represents the concatenated version of the NCVS on a collection year basis for 1992-2016. A collection year contains records from interviews conducted in the 12 months of the given year. Under the collection year format, victimizations are counted in the year the interview is conducted, regardless of the year when the crime incident occurred.
For additional information on the dataset, please see the documentation for the data from the most current year of the NCVS, ICPSR Study 36828.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
region
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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In February 2018, several errors in classifying cases on the collapsed occupation code variable (V4482B) were discovered. The corrected data are only included in the NCVS 1992-2017 concatenated data file (study number 37198). Data users should download these files if they want to use this variable. More information on the corrected data are in the 1992-2017 codebook. The incorrect data are still in the NCVS 2011-2016 collection year and concatenated year files.
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In October 2019, NACJD released a revised set of 1992-2016 NCVS Public-Use Files. The National Crime Victimization Survey, Concatenated File, [United States], 1992-2016: Revised Version (ICPSR 37241) data collection contains the official 1992-2016 NCVS data and replaces the previously published National Crime Victimization Survey, Concatenated File, [United States], 1992-2016 (ICPSR 36834) Public-Use Files. The initial files remain available for research purposes.
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In 2016, the NCVS sample was redesigned. This redesign impacted the victimization estimates for 2016 and their comparability to estimates from previous years. Please see the 2016 codebook for more information on those changes.
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The 2016 concatenated files were created from the Household, Person, and Incident-Level collection year files and include information on victims of crime; nonvictims are not included.
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Beginning with 2011, data contain replicate weights for household, person, incident, and victimization to facilitate standard error computations given the sampling design of NCVS.
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Beginning with 2012, the data have a change in how the victimization totals are computed. Series crimes are now included with up to 10 occurrences.
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The data were collected by the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
Sample View help for Sample
Stratified multistage cluster sample.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
All persons in the United States aged 12 and older.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
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HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2018-05-04
Version History View help for Version History
2019-10-31 The codebook was updated to include a note directing users to the revised version (ICPSR 37241) of this data. The study home page was also updated to include this note in the Summary section.
2019-06-13 The codebook section "Measuring Rape and Sexual Assault" was updated with revised text provided by BJS.
Weight View help for Weight
The data files include several weight variables used to calculate national estimates of: households, persons, victimizations, and incidents. The codebook describes how to use the weights.
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The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.