By Patsy Klaus, BJS Statistician

On average, 1993-2002, about 38,000 carjacking

victimizations occurred annually, according to victim

self-reports to the National Crime Victimization Survey

(NCVS). There were an average 1.7 victimizations

per 10,000 persons annually. About 15 murders a

year involved car theft, though not all were carjackings, for the theft could have been incidental. 

About 34,000 carjacking incidents occurred annually,

some having more than 1 victim. About 45% of these

incidents were completed crimes.

• Carjacking rates were higher on average during the

first 5 years of the 1993-2002 period (2.1 per 10,000

persons each year) than during the last 5 years (1.3

per 10,000).

• Men were more often victimized than women; 

blacks more than whites; and Hispanics more than

non-Hispanics. 

• Households with annual incomes of $50,000 or more

had lower rates than those making below $50,000.

• Carjacking victimization rates were highest in urban

areas, followed by suburban and rural areas. Ninetythree percent of carjackings occurred in cities or

suburbs. 

• A weapon was used in 74% of carjacking victimizations. Firearms were used in 45% of carjackings,

knives in 11%, and other weapons in 18%.

• The victim resisted the offender in two-thirds of

carjackings. Twenty-four percent of victims used

confrontational resistance (threatening or attacking

the offender or chasing or trying to capture the

offender). About a third of victims used nonconfrontational methods, such as running away, calling for

help, or trying to get the attention of others.

• About 32% of victims of completed carjackings and

about 17% of victims of attempted carjackings were

injured. Serious injuries, such as gunshot or knife

wounds, broken bones, or internal injuries occurred 

in about 9%. More minor injuries, such as bruises 

and chipped teeth, occurred in about 15%.

• The victims were hospitalized in about 1% of

carjackings. About 14% of victims were treated

National Crime Victimization Survey

Carjacking, 1993-2002

July 2004, NCJ 205123

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Crime Data Brief

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

*Hispanic background may have been 

misidentified as racial characteristic.

Average annual number of victimizations 38,000

Hospitalized 1%

Injured 24%

Resisted carjacker 67%

Other or unknown type 18

Knife 11

Firearm 45

Faced an armed offender 74%

Victims of nonfatal carjackings

Average annual number of incidents 34,000

Mixed races/Didn’t know 7

Asian or American Indian 16

Black 56

White 21%

Identified by victim as —*

Male 93%

More than one 56%

Carjackers

Within 5 miles of victim’s home 63%

Car recovered undamaged 25%

Of completed carjackings 

In cities or suburbs 93%

With one victim 90%

Completed 45%

Nonfatal carjacking incidents Percent

Characteristics of carjacking incidents,

offenders, and victims, 1993-2002
in hospital emergency departments and then

released. Another 6% involved victims who were

treated elsewhere, such as in a doctor's office or 

at the crime scene. About 4% of injured carjacking

victims did not seek medical treatment. 

• Multiple carjackers committed about 56% of the

total.

• Males committed 93% of carjacking incidents, while

groups involving both males and females committed 

3%. Women committed about 3% of carjackings.

• Carjacking victims identified 56% of the offenders as

black, 21% as white, and 16% as members of other

races, such as Asians or American Indians. In 6% of

carjackings, the victim(s) reported multiple offenders

of more than one race. 

• 68% of carjacking incidents occurred at night 

(6 p.m. - 6 a.m.). Forty-two percent of carjackings at

night and 50% of those in the day were completed.

• 44% of carjacking incidents occurred in an open

area, such as on the street (other than immediately

adjacent to the victim's own home or that of a friend or

neighbor) or near public transportation (such as a

bus, subway, or train station or an airport), and 24%

occurred in parking lots or garages or near commercial places such as stores, gas stations, office

buildings, restaurants/bars, or other commercial

facilities. 

• About 63% of carjacking incidents occurred within 5

miles of the victim's home, including the 17% that

occurred at or near the home. Four percent occurred

more than 50 miles from the victim's home.

• 77% of carjackings — 98% of the completed crimes

and 58% of the attempts — were reported to the

police. 

• Partial or complete recovery of property occurred 

in 78% of completed carjacking incidents. A quarter of

carjackings involved total recovery of all property. 

According to the Supplemental Homicide Reports

from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, about 15

murders a year involve auto theft. It is not possible to

determine how many of these murders meet the

definition of carjacking. 

*Based on 10 or fewer sample cases.

Under $50,000 1.9

$50,000 or more 1.5

Annual household income

Widowed 0.5*

Married 1.0

Divorced/separated 3.1

Never married 2.6

Marital status

Non-Hispanic 1.6

Hispanic 2.6

Hispanic origin

Asian or American Indian 1.0*

Black 3.3

White 1.5

Race

Female 1.1

Male 2.3

Gender

Total 1.7

Rate of victimization by

carjacking per 10,000

Victim characteristics persons in each group

Office of Justice Programs 

Partnerships for Safer Communities

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov 

These data are from the National Crime Victimization Survey

(NCVS), an ongoing survey which interviews about 42,000

households and 76,000 persons age 12 or older per year.

Carjacking as defined in NCVS is a completed or attempted

robbery in which a car or other motor vehicle was taken or an

attempt was made to take it and the offender was a stranger to

the victim. See <www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/cvus.pdf> for

additional information on the NCVS methodology.

Information about murder/auto thefts is from the Supplemental

Homicide Reports of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports.
Methodology 

Except for the information concerning murder/auto

theft, this report presents data from the National

Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). This survey

obtains information about criminal victimizations and

incidents from an ongoing, nationally representative

sample of households in the United States. NCVS

data include both those incidents reported and those

not reported to the police. Between 1993 and 2002

approximately 446,530 households and 831,060

persons age 12 or older were interviewed. Interviews

were conducted with households and individuals twice

per year. Response rates between 1993 and 2002

ranged between 92% to 96% of eligible households

and 87% to 93% of individuals.

Carjacking is not one of the crimes measured by the

NCVS on a yearly basis because of the low number of

cases identified annually (see further discussion

below). To measure non-fatal carjacking over multiple

years using NCVS data, cases were selected based

upon the following criteria: (a) a completed or

attempted robbery occurred, (b) a car or other motor

vehicle, such as a truck or any other motorized

vehicle legally allowed on public roads or highways,

was taken or an attempt was made to take such a

vehicle, and (c) the offender (or offenders) was a

stranger to the victim(s).

During the period of 1993-2002, a total of 130

unweighted cases of nonfatal carjacking were

identified, 58 completed and 72 attempted. These

cases were weighted to obtain national estimates of

nonfatal carjacking incidents and carjacking

victimizations in the United States. Aggregating data

over a number of years allows examination of the

characteristics of carjackings not possible when

examining data for individual yeas.

Although the number of sample cases for carjackings

is too low to present yearly trend data, there are

fewer unweighted cases of carjacking in recent years

than in the early 1990's. If comparisons are made with

the previous carjacking report, the declines in the

average annual number of carjackings reflect the

declining number of victimizations which have been

occurring in recent years for most NCVS crimes,

including carjacking. 

Carjackings can be analyzed as incidents (in which

more than one victim may be present) or as

victimizations (in which the characteristics of each

victim are described). The terms "incidents" and

"victimizations" are used to distinguish whether a

characteristic refers to the entire incident (such as

time or place of occurrence) or whether it describes

the victim characteristics (such as age, race and

gender). 

Information about murder/auto thefts was obtained

from the Uniform Crime Reports sponsored by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation. Data were obtained

from Supplemental Homicide Reports covering the

period of 1993 through 2002. 

Computation of standard errors

The comparisons made in this report were tested to

determine whether the observed differences between

groups were statistically significant. Except where

otherwise noted, comparisons mentioned in this

report passed a hypothesis test at the .05 level of

statistical significance (or the 95% confidence level).

This means that the estimated difference between

comparisons was greater than twice the standard

error of that difference. For comparisons that were

found to be statistically significant at the 90%

confidence level, terms such as "somewhat more

likely" were used.

Calculations were conducted with statistical programs

developed specifically for the NCVS by the U.S.

Bureau of the Census. These programs take into

account the complex NCVS sample design when

calculating generalized variance estimates.

Caution should be used when comparing estimates

not discussed in the text. Seemingly large differences

may not be statistically significant at the 95% of even

the 90% confidence level.