The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the nation's primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of about 240,000 persons in about 150,000 households. Persons are interviewed on the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States.
The NCVS collects information on nonfatal personal crimes (i.e., rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, and personal larceny) and household property crimes (i.e., burglary/trespassing, motor vehicle theft, and other types of theft) both reported and not reported to the police. Survey respondents provide information about themselves (e.g., age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, marital status, education level, and income) and whether they experienced a victimization.
For each victimization incident, the NCVS collects information about:
- the offender, including age, race and Hispanic origin, sex, and victim-offender relationship
- characteristics of the crime, including time and place of occurrence, if weapons were used, the nature of any injury sustained by a victim, and economic consequences to the victim related to their victimization
- whether the crime was reported to police
- reasons the crime was or was not reported
- and victim experiences with the criminal justice system.
The survey has been ongoing since 1973. For more information, see the NCVS data collection page.
These annual publications, which began in 1973, provide official estimates of criminal victimizations reported and not reported to police, based on data from the NCVS.
- Criminal Victimization publication series
While the NCVS was originally designed to provide national-level estimates of criminal victimization, BJS has developed multiple strategies for producing subnational victimization estimates. Through the NCVS Subnational Program, BJS has examined each of these approaches, including the relative benefits, limitations, and application.
NCVS supplement surveys allow BJS to capture the emerging landscape of crime while preserving consistency with the main NCVS. Interviews using supplement surveys are typically in the field for 6 months, either January-June or July-December. A supplement interview is conducted immediately after the NCVS interview for the sample person and before proceeding to the next eligible household member’s NCVS interview. In most cases, the reference period is 12 months, and estimates generated by supplement data are prevalence-based.
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) Dashboard (N-DASH) Tool modernizes public access to NCVS data with new, interactive online data visualizations. The N-DASH tool enhances the core functionality of the NCVS Victimization Analysis Tool (NVAT), increases the speed of conducting analyses, contains new data elements, and enables custom graphics and other modern features. The dashboard also provides direct and user-friendly access to the nation’s primary source of data on criminal victimization, beginning with 1993. This tool replaced the NVAT in early 2022.
The NCVS instrument redesign is a BJS-initiated multiyear effort to improve the efficiency, reliability, and utility of the entire NCVS, which includes a household roster, victimization screener, and detailed crime incident report.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (NCVS) collects information from a sample of U.S. households that represents the nation. The NCVS sample is a two-stage stratified sample of housing units and group quarters. Every ten years, the NCVS undergoes a sample redesign to ensure that the NCVS sample reflects the population distributions identified through the most recent decennial census. The next NCVS sample redesign to reflect changes in the U.S. population is scheduled for 2026, based on the 2020 decennial census.