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Criminal Victimization, 2018

NCJ Number
253043
Date Published
September 2019
Publication Series
Annotation

This report is the 46th in a series that began in 1973. It provides official estimates of criminal victimizations reported and not reported to police from BJS's National Crime Victimization Survey.

Abstract

This report is the 46th in a series that began in 1973. It provides official estimates of criminal victimizations reported and not reported to police from BJS's National Crime Victimization Survey. It describes the characteristics of crimes, victims, and offenders. Supplemental tables have been added (PDF).

Highlights
  • The number of violent-crime victims age 12 or older rose from 2.7 million in 2015 to 3.3 million in 2018, an increase of 604,000 victims.
  • The portion of white persons age 12 or older who were victims of violent crime increased from 0.96% in 2015 to 1.19% in 2018 (up 24%), while the portion of males who were victims increased from 0.94% to 1.21% (up 29%).
  • The rate of violent victimizations not reported to police rose from 9.5 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older in 2015 to 12.9 per 1,000 in 2018, while the rate of violent victimizations reported to police showed no statistically significant change.
  • The number of violent incidents increased from 5.2 million in 2017 to 6.0 million in 2018.

Date Modified: September 14, 2020

A coding error assigned victimizations with an attempted (but not completed) theft as trespassing in household-level victimization rates. These victimizations are now coded as burglary. This resulted in a decrease in trespassing estimates and an increase burglary estimates. It affected victimization rates for all years; however, the total burglary/trespassing estimate was not affected. See Criminal Victimization, 2019 for updated estimates.

Date Published: September 10, 2019