47 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

47.1 Organization

Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)

47.3 Description

  • Captures detailed information about the victims and consequences of crime
  • Estimates number and types of crimes not reported to police
  • Provides uniform measures of selected types of crime
  • Data includes type of crime, severity of crime, injuries or losses, time and place of occurrence, medical expenses, characteristics of offender(s), demographic information of respondent

47.4 Vintage/Release Frequency

Annual since 1992

47.5 Observational Unit

Person

47.6 Collection Methodology

  • Stratified, multistage cluster sample of US households
  • All persons 12 years of age or older in household are interviewed
  • Asked if a victim of a crime (including rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft) during six-months prior to interview date
  • Person-level files include full sample of victims and 10% sample of non-victims for up to four incidents
  • 6 quarters of data comprise and annual file (all four quarters of the designated year as well as the first two quarters of the subsequent year

47.7 Available at

47.8 User Guide/Data Dictionary

Documentation are available at the same website as data download

47.9 Cost

Free for download

47.10 Proposal or Application required?

No

47.11 DUA required?

No

47.12 Special Notes

There is also a learning guide available for the NCVS at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/NACJD/guides/victimization/index.html and a resource guide at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/pages/NACJD/NCVS/index.html