Second Major Redesign of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

Abstract

Research Summary Since 1973, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has served as a key source of data on the level and nature of crime and its consequences. To keep pace with the changing landscape of crime, as well as with the technological advances in survey research, occasional “redesigns” of the survey are necessary to modernize and improve the utility of data collected. Policy Implications This article describes recent and ongoing efforts to redesign (a) the NCVS survey instruments to reflect the changing demographics of victims, emerging crime types, and timely issues related to victimization risk and victim responses to crime and (b) the NCVS sample to generate state and local estimates of crime. The implications of these improvements for researchers and policy makers are discussed.