U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Bureau of Justice Statistics

BJS

Program Report September 2014 | NCJ 246832

The Nation’s Two Crime Measures

The U.S. Department of Justice administers two statistical programs to measure the magnitude, nature, and impact of crime in 

the nation: the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and the Bureau of Justice Statistic’s National Crime Victimization 

Survey (NCVS). Each of these programs produces valuable information about aspects of the nation’s crime problem. Because the 

UCR and NCVS programs have different purposes, use different methods, and focus on somewhat different aspects of crime, the 

complementary information they produce together provides a more comprehensive understanding of the nation’s crime problem 

than either could produce alone.

Uniform Crime Reports—FBI

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) began 

publishing information for the UCR Program in 1929, 2 years 

after the IACP had established a committee to research the 

uniform reporting of crime statistics. Since September 1930, 

the FBI has administered the program. The UCR Program 

currently collects information on murder and nonnegligent 

manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, 

burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and human 

trafficking. Law enforcement agencies report arrest data for 22 

additional crime categories.

The UCR Program compiles data from monthly law 

enforcement reports or individual crime incident records 

transmitted directly to the FBI or to centralized agencies that 

then report to the FBI. The program thoroughly examines each 

report it receives for reasonableness, accuracy, and deviations 

that may indicate errors. Large variations in crime levels may 

indicate modified records procedures, incomplete reporting, or 

changes in a jurisdiction’s boundaries. To identify any unusual 

fluctuations in an agency’s crime counts, the program compares 

monthly reports to previous submissions of the agency and 

with those for similar agencies.

The UCR Program presents national crime counts, as well 

as counts for regions, states, counties, cities, towns, tribal 

law enforcement, and colleges and universities. This permits 

analysis among neighboring jurisdictions and among those 

with similar populations and other common characteristics.

The FBI annually publishes its findings in a preliminary release 

in the spring of the following calendar year, followed by a 

detailed annual report, Crime in the United States, issued in 

the fall. In addition to crime counts and trends, this report 

includes data on crimes cleared, persons arrested (age, sex, 

and race), law enforcement personnel, and the characteristics 

of homicides (including age, sex, and race of victims and 

offenders; victim–offender relationships; weapons used; and 

circumstances surrounding the homicides). The UCR Program 

also generates other periodic reports.

Continued on next page Continued on next page

National Crime Victimization 

Survey—BJS

The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) NCVS provides a detailed 

picture of crime incidents, victims, and trends. The NCVS began 

in 1973 as the National Crime Survey (NCS). In 1992, the NCS 

was renamed the NCVS to reflect a substantial redesign effort 

that focused primarily on methodological changes to the survey. 

The redesign improved the initial questions used to screen for 

victimization incidents, updated the survey methods to take 

advantage of new technologies, and broadened the scope of crimes 

measured. The current NCVS collects detailed information on 

the frequency and nature of the crimes of rape and other sexual 

assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, personal larceny, 

household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and other theft.

Each year, BJS interviews a nationally representative sample of 

approximately 169,000 persons age 12 or older living in U.S. 

households. Households remain in the sample for 3.5 years. 

New households rotate into the sample on an ongoing basis. 

The NCVS collects information on crimes experienced by 

individuals and households during the 6 months preceding 

the interview, whether or not those crimes were reported 

to law enforcement. A unique feature of the NCVS is that it 

collects both reported and unreported crimes and reasons 

the crime was or was not reported. The survey also captures 

specific details about each crime incident. The NCVS collects 

information about victims (such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, 

marital status, income, and educational level), offenders 

(such as sex, race, approximate age, and victim–offender 

relationship), and crimes (including time and place of 

occurrence, use of weapons, nature of injury, and economic 

consequences). In addition, the NCVS asks questions about the 

experiences of victims with the criminal justice system, selfprotective measures used by victims, and possible substance 

abuse by offenders. The NCVS periodically includes additional 

questions on particular topics. Recent supplements have 

covered issues concerning school crime, identity theft, contacts 

between police and citizens, and stalking.
2 The Nation’s Two Crime Measures | September 2014 | bjs.gov BJS

UCR—FBI (continued)

Many local and state law enforcement agencies participating 

in the UCR Program submit their data via the more 

comprehensive National Incident-Based Reporting System 

(NIBRS). The NIBRS provides agencies the opportunity to 

submit additional details about each criminal incident in 

23 offense categories.

Continued on next page

NCVS—BJS (continued)

BJS publication of NCVS data includes Criminal Victimization, 

an annual report that covers the broad range of detailed 

information collected by the NCVS, and the NCVS Victimization 

Analysis Tool, an online database through which users can 

examine victimization rates, counts, and percentages by a range 

of victim and crime characteristics. BJS publishes detailed 

reports on topics such as intimate partner violence, workplace 

violence, hate crime, and crime against persons with disabilities. 

The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data at the University 

of Michigan archives the NCVS datafiles to enable researchers to 

perform independent analyses.

Comparing UCR and the NCVS

Because BJS designed the NCVS in part to complement the 

UCR Program, the two programs share many similarities. As 

much as their different collection methods permit, the two 

measure the same subset of serious crimes: rape, robbery, 

aggravated assault, burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft. 

Rape, robbery, theft, and motor vehicle theft are defined 

virtually identically by both the UCR and the NCVS. (Prior to 

2013, the UCR Program measured a more limited definition 

of forcible rape against women only while the NCVS 

measured a broader definition of rape against both sexes. Now 

the NCVS and UCR measure rape analogously.)

Although they cover a set of similar crimes, the programs 

differ in significant ways. First, the programs serve different 

purposes. The UCR Program’s primary objective is to provide 

a reliable set of criminal justice statistics for law enforcement 

administration, operation, and management. BJS established 

the NCVS to provide previously unavailable information 

about crime (including crime not reported to police), victims, 

and offenders.

Second, the programs measure an overlapping but 

nonidentical set of crimes. The NCVS includes, but the 

UCR excludes, sexual assault (completed, attempted, and 

threatened), attempted robberies, verbal threats of rape, 

simple assault, and crimes not reported to law enforcement. 

The UCR includes, but the NCVS excludes, homicide, arson, 

commercial crimes, and crimes against children under age 

12. The UCR captures crimes reported to law enforcement, 

but collects only arrest data for simple assault and sex offenses 

other than forcible rape.

Third, because of methodology, the NCVS and UCR 

definitions of some crimes differ. For example, the UCR 

defines burglary as the unlawful entry or attempted entry of 

a structure to commit a felony or theft. The NCVS defines 

burglary as the entry or attempted entry of a residence by a 

person who had no right to be there.

Fourth, for property crimes (burglary, theft, and motor vehicle 

theft), the programs calculate crime rates using different bases. 

The UCR rates for these crimes are per capita (number of crimes 

per 100,000 persons), whereas the NCVS rates for these crimes 

are per household (number of crimes per 1,000 households).

Because the number of households may not grow at the same 

rate each year as the total population, trend data for rates of 

property crimes measured by the two programs may not be 

comparable. In addition, some differences in the data from 

the two programs may result from sampling variation in the 

NCVS and from estimating for nonresponse in the UCR.

BJS derives the NCVS estimates from interviewing a sample. 

Therefore, estimates are subject to a margin of error. This 

error is known and is reflected in the standard error of the 

estimate. The UCR Program bases its data on the actual 

counts of offenses reported by law enforcement agencies. In 

some circumstances, the UCR Program estimates its data for 

nonparticipating agencies or those reporting partial data. 

Apparent statistical discrepancies between the two programs 

are often due to definitional and procedural differences 

or resolved when comparing NCVS sampling variations 

(i.e., confidence intervals) of crimes reported to police to 

UCR statistics.

Each program has unique strengths. The UCR provides a 

measure of the number of crimes reported to law enforcement 

agencies throughout the country. The UCR’s Supplementary 

Homicide Reports provide reliable, timely data on the 

extent and nature of homicides in the nation. In addition to 

providing annual point and change estimates on criminal 

victimization, the NCVS is the primary source of information 

on the characteristics of criminal victimization incidents 

and on the number and types of crimes not reported to law 

enforcement authorities.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice is the principal 

federal agency responsible for measuring crime, criminal victimization, criminal 

offenders, victims of crime, correlates of crime, and the operation of criminal 

and civil justice systems at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels. BJS collects, 

analyzes, and disseminates reliable and valid statistics on crime and justice 

systems in the United States, supports improvements to state and local criminal 

justice information systems, and participates with national and international 

organizations to develop and recommend national standards for justice statistics. 

William J. Sabol is acting director.

This report was written by Michael Planty and Lynn Langton of BJS and 

Cindy Barnett-Ryan, FBI.

Vanessa Curto and Jill Thomas edited the report. Barbara Quinn produced 

the report.

September 2014, NCJ 246832

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Office of Justice Programs

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Comparing UCR and the NCVS (continued)

By understanding the strengths and limitations of each 

program, the UCR and NCVS can be used to achieve a greater 

understanding of crime trends and the nature of crime in the 

United States. For example, changes in police procedures, 

shifting attitudes towards crime and police, and other societal 

changes can affect the extent to which people report and law 

enforcement agencies record crime. NCVS and UCR data 

can be used in complementary ways to explore why trends in 

reported and police-recorded crime may differ.