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2 - Introduction to the National Crime Victimization Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2009

By
Callie Marie Rennison  and
Michael Rand
Edited by
James P. Lynch  and
Lynn A. Addington
Callie Marie Rennison
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri–St. Louis
Michael Rand
Affiliation:
Chief of Victimization Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics
James P. Lynch
Affiliation:
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
Lynn A. Addington
Affiliation:
American University, Washington DC
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Summary

If we knew more about the character of both offenders and victims, the nature of their relationships and the circumstances that create a high probability of crime conduct, it seems likely that crime prevention and control programs could be made much more effective.

The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, 1967a

For more than 30 years, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and its predecessor the National Crime Survey (NCS) have provided detailed information about the nature and extent of personal and property victimization in the United States. Much of our current understanding about crime, such as the most vulnerable segments of the population, the proportion of crime involving weapons, the types of injuries sustained in violent crimes, and the extent of reporting to police, is derived from the NCS and NCVS. The NCVS also serves as a model for victimization surveys implemented throughout the world because it incorporates many innovative methodological protocols that enhance its ability to produce reliable estimates of the nature and extent of criminal victimization. These methodological techniques combined with the large sample size and the extensive details collected by the survey on crime events are all reasons that the current NCVS remains the “most comprehensive and systematic survey of victims in the United States” (Mosher et al., 2002, p. 137).

The NCVS and the Uniform Crime Reporting System (UCR) comprise the two ongoing national measures of crime in the United States.

Type
Chapter
Information
Understanding Crime Statistics
Revisiting the Divergence of the NCVS and the UCR
 , pp. 17 - 54
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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