National Crime Victimization Survey, Concatenated File, [United States], 1992-2020 (ICPSR 38136)

Version Date: Oct 18, 2021

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Principal Investigator(s):
United States. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38136.v1

Version V1

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Summary

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 1992-2020. 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 38090.

Citation

United States. Bureau of Justice Statistics. National Crime Victimization Survey, Concatenated File, [United States], 1992-2020. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-10-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38136.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

region

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)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1992 -- 2020

Date of Collection

1992 -- 2020

Data Collection Notes

  1. In 2016, the NCVS sample was redesigned. Working with the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Justice Statistics devised a methodology for creating the revised 2016 NCVS data file to allow for comparisons between the 2016 data and prior (and future) data years. This study includes revised data from a previously published study (ICPSR 36834). Please see the 2016 revised codebook (ICPSR 37296) for more information on those changes.

  2. The 2020 concatenated files were created from the Household, Person, and Incident-Level collection year files.

  3. The data were collected by the United States Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau.

  4. Starting in 2012 series crimes are included with up to 10 occurrences.

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Sample

Stratified multistage cluster sample.

Time Method

Longitudinal

Universe

All persons in the United States aged 12 or older.

Unit(s) of Observation

crime incident, individual, household

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

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Original Release Date

2021-10-18

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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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Notes

  • 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.