Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

Publisher:: Sage Publications, Inc.
Publication date:: 2021-09-06

ISBN:: 1043-9862

Issue Number

No. 41-1, February 2025

Latest documents

Issues Associated With the Formulation of a Small Area Model for Estimation of State-Level Crime Victimization Rates
Subnational estimation is an important and challenging problem in the context of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Direct estimates for subnational domains are often unreliable due to small sample sizes. Model-based procedures have potential to improve upon direct estimators. However, model-based estimation presents several new challenges. One must identify suitable covariates, and an appropriate model form must be specified. This article discusses issues associated with the formulation of a small area model for production of state-level estimates of crime victimization rates. An analysis of direct estimates and covariates motivates the development of a Bayesian multivariate model. A model in the original scale is compared to a model in the log scale. Efficiency gains from the model relative to the direct estimators are examined. One challenge is that direct estimates can equal zero. Two ways of handling zero direct estimates are discussed.
The Addition and Expansion of Demographic Characteristics in the NCVS
One of the advantages of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is that it is a large-scale data collection that allows data to be analyzed on various subpopulations. Since the survey’s inception, there have been changes to the population, law, and areas of public interest. In July of 2016, questions were added to the NCVS on citizenship, veteran status, sexual orientation, and gender identity. In addition, changes were made to existing questions on disability status and household income. This allowed for analysis of criminal victimization against more demographic groups. This article discusses these changes and provides estimates of violent victimization by these demographic characteristics.
Neighborhood Immigrant Concentration, Interview Language, and Survey Nonresponse in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
Using restricted data from 2011 to 2014, this study examines whether neighborhood immigrant concentration and survey interview language are associated with participation in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The findings show that survey participation in the NCVS during the study period did not differ appreciably among households and persons sampled from neighborhoods with larger shares of immigrants. This suggests that the NCVS can contribute meaningfully to knowledge about the relationship between neighborhood immigrant concentration and levels of crime, providing an important complement to studies based on crime data collected by law enforcement agencies. Interview language had a minimal impact on nonresponse among Hispanic respondents in the NCVS, but the study revealed much higher rates of nonresponse across waves among Asian household respondents who completed the NCVS in a non-English language, especially among those from neighborhoods with relatively low immigrant concentration. This suggests that greater translation support for Asian respondents could increase NCVS response rates. Replicating and extending our research with more recent NCVS data, and incorporating the new item on citizenship status, would be valuable given the continued growth in the immigrant population, increased share of immigrants who routinely speak a language other than English at home, and social and political changes that have corresponded with observed reductions in nonresponse in government-administered surveys. We encourage the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to facilitate such research by routinely making the restricted NCVS data available for researchers to use within the nation’s Federal Statistical Research Data Centers and by adding interview language as a permanent fixture of the data.
The Future of the NCVS: Findings From the Multiyear Effort to Design the New Instrument and Plans for Implementation
During the past 50 years, various changes and improvements to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) have occurred. During this time, the NCVS has provided important national data on personal and household victimization and has remained a key resource for understanding victims’ experiences. As the survey continues to evolve over time to address emerging data needs, this article provides details on the most recent multiyear effort to redesign the NCVS instrument. This effort was focused on three main goals: modernize the organization and content of the NCVS instrument, increase the quality of information collected and efficiency of the instrument flow, and improve the measurement and classification of crime. As we look forward to the next 50 years of NCVS data collection, the new NCVS instrument will continue to be a rich data source for understanding criminal victimization and the resulting consequences.
The Evolution of the Measurement of Rape and Sexual Assault Over 50 Years: Milestones, Definitions, Operationalizations, and Classifications
For the past 50 years, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has been committed to improving crime victimization estimates through three crime surveys: the National Crime Survey (1972–1991), National Crime Victimization Survey (1992–2023), and the redesigned National Crime Victimization Survey (2024–present). This article explores the progression of how rape and sexual assault (RSA) have been measured across these surveys, highlighting key milestones, legislative impacts, and measurement changes. The key aspects include the transformation of sexual victimization definitions, the focus on behaviors and tactics in the type of crime classification, and the expansion from solely measuring rape to a broader spectrum of RSA. The dedication to refining RSA screening and classification methods through extensive testing and evaluation is evident. This evolution demonstrates BJS’s ongoing efforts to produce accurate RSA estimates and adapt to changing societal and legislative contexts.
A Review of the Evolution of the NCS-NCVS Police Reporting and Response Questions and Their Application to Older Women Experiencing Violent Victimization
Little attention is given to the history of the data that underlie research on crime trends and patterns. This article considers the evolution of the National Crime Victimization Survey’s (NCVS) police reporting and response questions. These questions are particularly important as the NCVS is the only nationally representative source of information on whether crime is reported to the police and citizen views of police actions. In addition, the current NCVS redesign is set to substantially add to these items. To provide a context for this discussion, this article applies the police reporting and response questions to an understudied victim group, specifically older women who experience violent victimization. This application illustrates the research opportunities and challenges for working with these data.
The Story of ENVIPE
This article purports to narrate the particular circumstances in which the Mexican National Survey on Victimization and Perception of Public Security (ENVIPE) came into being as a response to correct the lack of information about a social problem (crime) that was (and is) seriously affecting the country. It describes the events and the actions of the agencies and individuals involved that led to the design and eventually carrying out of an annual survey that has become a centerpiece of information on crime for Mexico and that, in turn, has contributed to the development of similar surveys in other Latin American countries. It presents its main features and some of the challenges it may face in the future.
Harms and Consequences of Victimization
To meaningfully measure crime and track increases and decreases in public safety, some criminologists have argued for the need to focus on the harms associated with crime rather than counts of the number of crimes. Although numerous other countries have established crime harm indexes, the United States continues to rely heavily on traditional approaches to enumerating crime and to focus primarily on crimes reported to police. This article sets out to examine the harms and consequences of violence as assessed by the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). We provide a descriptive assessment of the physical and social-emotional harms associated with experiencing a violent victimization and use this incident-level information to create an index that moves from simple enumeration to a fuller accounting of harm. We compare harm levels and trends over time to crime counts and by various crime and victim types. We examine how these harms are associated with help-seeking behavior, including reporting to the police and victim assistance. Our aim is to demonstrate how incident-based information about harms can provide additional information about the magnitude of crime and victim help-seeking behavior.
Theory Development and Crime Prevention Insights From the NCVS
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has furnished U.S. crime statistics and high quality data for theory development and policy insights for over 50 years. This article highlights few of these achievements drawing on the development of criminological thinking with regard to measurement, and explanation of victimization and its concentration on a small minority of the population. It overviews lifestyle and the more encompassing environmental criminology theory for victimization, and explanations of multiple victimization, and the international crime drop that relied on NCVS data. Selected crime prevention insight and few recommendations for future research conclude the article.
Methodological Developments and Innovations of the National Crime Victimization Survey, 1972–2023
Over its 50 years of existence, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has changed to address the informational needs of its users, as well as adapt to an evolving survey climate. Perhaps more than any other victim survey in the world, data quality has been an emphasis. In this article, the evolution of the methodology of the survey is described up to the point of the 2024 redesign. The first section provides an abbreviated description of the innovations and methods instituted up through the redesign in 1992. This section highlights key milestones and refers the reader to more detailed descriptions of the origins of the NCVS and the 1992 redesign. The second section provides more detail on methodological issues and changes since the 1992 redesign. This article closes with the challenges the survey faces moving forward into the mid-21st century.