Violent victimization
Rape/sexual assault, personal robbery, aggravated assault, or simple assault. Includes attempted and completed crimes. Excludes personal theft/larceny. Murder is not measured by the NCVS because of an inability to question the victim. Violent victimizations measure crimes against persons. Each time a person is affected by a violent crime, it is counted as a single victimization.
Weapon category
A measure of whether a weapon was present during the victimization. The respondent is asked whether the offender had a weapon. Weapons include items such as guns, knives, and other objects that are used as weapons (e.g., rocks and clubs). This applies only to personal victimizations where there was contact between the victim and the offender. By definition, neither simple assault nor personal theft involves a weapon.
Users can obtain information about the type of weapon. The data visualization tool uses this coding for weapon type:
- No weapon
- Firearm
- Knife
- Other weapon type
- Unknown weapon type
- Don’t know if offender had weapon