About the National Crime Victimization Survey

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is a self-report survey in which interviewed persons are asked about the number and characteristics of victimizations they experienced. The NCVS provides annual level and change estimates on criminal victimization in the U.S. Several features of the NCVS make it appropriate for this type of analysis:

1. The U.S. Census Bureau has been collecting these data on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Statistics since 1973.
2. The NCVS uses either direct face-to-face or telephone interviews with respondents. Survey respondents provide information about themselves and whether they experienced a victimization.
3. The NCVS collects data from all persons ages 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. This means that the results can be used to estimate the levels of victimization for persons in households across the entire country.
4. The NCVS was designed to complement official police statistics, such as the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. Unlike police statistics or other official sources, the NCVS captures criminal acts that may never come to the attention of the police or other law enforcement agencies, or the "dark figure of crime."
5. The NCVS asks respondents about their experiences with victimization in the past six months. This relatively short recall period increases the validity of the information.

In addition to tracking trends, the NCVS is meant to provide detailed information about the circumstances of crime, including characteristics of both the perpetrator(s) and the victim(s). These data can be used to estimate levels of violent and property crime victimization, and the NCVS can also be used to study such topics as the relationships between victims and offenders, the victim's decision to report the crime to the police, and the consequences of crime on the victim's physical and psychological well-being. The study design also makes it possible to examine crimes that affect everyone in the household as well as all crimes experienced by an individual.

Want to learn more about the NCVS? See our National Crime Victimization Survey Resource Guide. For detailed information, see the codebook documentation provided with each data release.