Reporting to Police by Type of Crime and Location of Residence, 2020–2023

• NCJ Number: 310166
• Author(s): Miles Wang, Former BJS Fellow; Alexandra Thompson, BJS Statistician
• Date Published: July 2025
• Publication Series: Just the Stats

Description

This brief Just the Stats report presents findings on the percentage of victimizations reported to police by type of crime and location of residence for the aggregate period of 2020 through 2023. It details the percentage of both violent and property victimizations reported to police by type of crime and location of the victim’s residence. The data used to produce this report are from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). In the NCVS, victims’ residences can be classified as urban, suburban, or rural.

Highlights

In 2020–2023:

• About 38% of violent victimizations in urban areas were reported to police, which was lower than the percentages in suburban (43%) and rural (51%) areas.
• The percentage of rape and sexual assault victimizations in rural areas that were reported to police (52%) was almost four times higher than the share reported to police in urban areas (13%), and almost two times higher than the share reported in suburban areas (29%).
• Reporting to police for simple assault victimizations was higher in suburban (39%) and rural areas (46%) than urban areas (32%).
• For robbery, the percentage of victimizations reported to police was lower in suburban areas (49%) than urban areas (63%). The percentage of robbery victimizations reported to police was not statistically different between urban and rural areas.