NCJ Number
185539
Date Published
January 2000
Length
54 pages
Annotation
This paper reviews what has been learned about victimization
surveys over the past 30 years and how this source of information
has been used as a social indicator and a means of building
criminological theories; it also identifies major methodological
issues that remain unresolved and suggest some approaches to
exploring them.
Abstract
The evolution of the National Crime Survey (NCS) is
used as a vehicle for this discussion, because this survey has
been conducted continuously for 25 years and has been the subject
of extensive methodological study. A review of self-report
surveys addresses contributions of the survey method to an
understanding of crime, along with the implications of such
surveys for crime as a social indicator and for building theories
of crime and its consequences. A discussion of the unique
features of the NCS design notes that it uses a rotating panel
design of addresses in which persons in sample households are
interviewed at 6-month intervals over 3.5 years. All members of
the household 12 years of age and older are asked about their
victimization experience in the previous 6 months. In addition,
one household member is asked to report on the theft of common
property as well as on his/her own personal victimization. A
section on the evolution of the NCS considers the President's
Commissions' relevant studies. Among the topics considered in
this section are the National Academy of Sciences report and the
NCS redesign and other improvements. The latter encompass
improvements in screening, computer-assisted interviews, and
revision of the series incident procedure. A section on
limitations and future research considers controversies with the
design and analysis of victimization surveys; validation;
continuations in the development of screening procedures; sample
design, coverage, and nonresponse; and going beyond the
assumption of crime as a point-in-time event. 14 notes and 104
references
Date Published: January 1, 2000