Males disproportionately commit criminal offenses, 

particularly violent crime (see “Homicide”), and certain 

crimes are predominately committed by men against 

women (see “Stalking,” “Intimate Partner Violence,” and 

“Sexual Violence”). Young people (age 16−24) experience 

the most crime both in terms of victimization and offending 

as compared to other age groups (see “Child, Youth, and 

Teen Victimization”).

Our national crime statistics provide an important resource 

for our understanding about crime and victimization, 

but these statistics do not cover all crimes or all victims. 

While the scope of crimes included in national collection 

efforts continues to grow, gaps in our knowledge still 

exist, particularly for emerging crimes, including elder 

victimization, human trafficking, financial crimes (especially 

Internet-based frauds), stalking, and mass casualty 

crimes. An additional issue concerns our understanding 

of the broader effects of crime, especially measuring the 

direct and indirect harm to victims caused by crime and 

identifying the impact of exposure to violence, particularly 

for children. The limitations in our knowledge of these areas 

should not be interpreted as diminishing the importance 

of these crimes or the harm experienced by these victims 

but rather should signal the need for continued work by 

researchers. 

Uniform Crime Report

The Uniform Crime Report (UCR), launched in 1929, collects 

information reported to law enforcement agencies on the 

following crimes: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, 

rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larcenytheft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and human trafficking. 

Law enforcement agencies also report arrest data 

for 22 additional crime categories (e.g., forgery and 

counterfeiting, drug abuse violations, disorderly conduct, 

vagrancy). Each year, the FBI issues a report on the main 

UCR findings, titled Crime in the United States, as well as 

several other reports (e.g., Hate Crimes 2014 and Law 

Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2014).A The 

UCR presents crime counts for the entire nation, as well 

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

enforcement, and colleges and universities. Its primary 

purpose is to provide reliable criminal justice statistics for 

law enforcement administration and management.B 

National Crime Victimization Survey

The methodology for the National Crime Victimization 

Survey (NCVS), which began in 1973, differs from that of 

the UCR. The NCVS is based on a nationally representative 

sample of U.S. households. Household members age 

12 and older are interviewed by the U.S. Census Bureau 

every six months for a three-year period. The NCVS collects 

information on the frequency and nature of the crimes 

of rape, sexual assault, personal robbery, aggravated 

and simple assault, household burglary, theft, and motor 

vehicle theft; it does not, however, measure homicide or 

commercial crimes. It gathers information on crimes both 

reported and not reported to the police, estimates the 

proportion of each crime reported to law enforcement, 

and describes the reasons victims gave for reporting or not 

reporting. The NCVS also includes questions about victims’ 

experiences with the criminal justice system, possible 

substance abuse by offenders, and how victims sought to 

protect themselves. 

The NCVS collects demographic information about both 

victims and offenders (e.g., age, sex, race, ethnicity, marital 

status, income, educational level, relationship between 

victim and offender), as well as information about the 

crimes (including time and place of occurrence, use of 

weapons, nature of injury, and economic impact).C The 

Crime and 

Victimization 

in the United States

When considering crime and victimization 

facts and statistics, we can only analyze 

or report on crimes that are measured or 

counted in some way. The United States has 

long-standing national data collections for 

serious violent crimes, such as homicide, 

rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, as 

well as property crimes such as burglary. 

While we know that the statistics do 

not cover all crime or all victims, we do 

know from these reports that crime in the 

United States has declined measurably for 

decades. Although the decrease in crime 

has been steady and remarkably consistent, 

criminologists have reached no widely held 

conclusions about the reasons why. There 

are however some general patterns.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
NCVS also publishes supplements on specific 

crime issues such as stalking or school crime.

Differences between the UCR 

and NCVS

Although the categories of crime covered by the 

UCR and NCVS overlap, their methodologies differ, 

and the studies serve different purposes. The UCR 

covers all victims of crimes that were reported 

to law enforcement (regardless of the victim’s 

age, and including non-person victims such as 

businesses), but the NCVS gathers data on crimes 

against people age 12 and older. The UCR covers 

homicide, arson, and commercial crimes, which 

the NCVS does not measure. The studies use 

somewhat different definitions of some crimes, and 

they report property crime using different bases, 

e.g., per capita—crimes per 100,000 persons 

(UCR) versus crimes per 1,000 households (NCVS). 

The UCR measures crimes actually reported to law 

enforcement nationwide, and the NCVS addresses 

crimes not reported to law enforcement. 

Important Notes about the Data

The information presented in the following newly 

envisioned Crime and Victimization Fact Sheets reflects 

the findings in the reports and other sources cited for 

each topic. The data are based on the best available 

information as of January 2016. Since then, updated 

data may have become available. The latest Bureau of 

Justice Statistics (BJS) study, Criminal Victimization, 

2014, is available online at www.bjs.gov. The latest 

FBI statistics, Crime in the United States, 2014, and 

additional statistical tables are available online at 

www.fbi.gov. 

The information included in the Resource Guide relies 

primarily on reports published by BJS and the FBI, as 

well as statistics calculated using online data tools 

available from both BJS and the FBI. These data tools 

are freely available and can be accessed online at 

www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=nvat (for the NCVS data 

tool) and www.bjs.gov/ucrdata (for the UCR data tool). 

These tools are user-friendly resources that permit 

interested readers to generate additional statistical 

tables that suit their particular interests. 

Each Fact Sheet includes both text and graphics. 

Infographics are included in this year’s Resource Guide 

to provide a visual representation of the data. These 

new facts are interactive, allowing users to easily delve 

further into the information by clicking on the data 

point to visit the source. The information compiled 

on the Fact Sheets is also great to share via social 

media during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week 

and throughout the year. Please note that percentages 

on charts and graphs do not always add up to 100 

because the numbers have been rounded.

Crime and Victimization in the United States continued

SOURCES

A Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Uniform Crime Reports,” 

(Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2014), http://www.fbi.

gov/about-us/cjis/ucr

B ---“A Word About UCR Data,” Uniform Crime Reports, (Washington, 

DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2014), https://www.fbi.gov/aboutus/cjis/ucr/word

C Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Data Collection: National 

Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS),” (Washington, DC: U.S. 

Department of Justice, 2014), http://www.bjs.gov/index.

cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245#Methodology