National Crime Victimization Survey

UCR v NCVS (and a little NIBRS)

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• published: 06 Feb 2013
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An overview of the features and problems of the UCR and the NCVS. • UCR o Sponsored by the FBI and published annually since 1930 o Data is collected from police department reports  These reports are voluntary, but there is a high percentage of participation.  About 18,000 police agencies o Measure index crimes  Homicide  Rape  Robbery  Aggravated Assault  Burglary  Larceny  Motor Vehicle Theft  Arson o Problem  Hierarchy rule • Only the most serious offense is recorded by the police  Dark Figure of Crime • There's some number of crimes that are not reported, therefore we have no data on them • Many reasons, one reason in particular deals with the seriousness of the crime. The more serious a crime is, the more likely a victim is to report it. With that said, the UCR is probably a pretty good measure of serious crime in the US. • NCVS o Sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) o Participants come in as groups that are interviewed every 6 months for 3 years at which point they are rotated out of the survey. o The surveys are administered to members of a household if they are at least 12 years old. o Because of the nature of these statistics (victimization surveys), there are no data on homicide rates o There are about 41,000 households and around 70,000 individuals involved in this survey at any given time. o NCVS was created to get at the "dark figure" of crime, so unsurprisingly it shows a higher level of crime than the UCR o A couple of limitations  Underreporting of non-stranger crimes  Because they are surveys, participants can under or over report crimes, or even forget details about some crimes they have been the victim of.