DOI: 10.3886/icpsr07635.v4
title: National Crime Surveys: National Sample, 1973-1983
title: Version 4

description: The National Crime Survey (NCS), a study of personal and household victimization, measures victimization for six selected crimes, including attempts. The NCS was designed to achieve three primary objectives: to develop detailed information about the victims and consequences of crime, to estimate the number and types of crimes not reported to police, and to provide uniform measures of selected types of crime. The surveys cover the following types of crimes, including attempts: rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and auto or motor vehicle theft. Crimes such as murder, kidnapping, shoplifting, and gambling are not covered. Questions designed to obtain data on the characteristics and circumstances of the victimization were asked in each incident report. Items such as time and place of occurrence, injuries suffered, medical expenses incurred, number, age, race, and sex of offender(s), relationship of offender(s) to victim (stranger, casual acquaintance, relative, etc.), and other detailed data relevant to a complete description of the incident were included. Legal and technical terms, such as assault and larceny, were avoided during the interviews. Incidents were later classified in more technical terms based upon the presence or absence of certain elements. In addition, data were collected in the study to obtain information on the victims' education, migration, labor force status, occupation, and income. Full data for each year are contained in Parts 101-110. Incident-level extract files (Parts 1-10, 41) are available to provide users with files that are easy to manipulate. The incident-level datasets contain each incident record that appears in the full sample file, the victim's person record, and the victim's household information. These data include person and household information for incidents only. Subsetted person-level files also are available as Parts 50-79. All of the variables for victims are repeated for a maximum of four incidents per victim. There is one person-level subset file for each interview quarter of the complete national sample from 1973 through the second interview quarter in 1980.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: 1973, Incident Level 
 DS2: 1974, Incident Level 
 DS3: 1975, Incident Level 
 DS4: 1976, Incident Level 
 DS5: 1977, Incident Level 
 DS6: 1978, Incident Level 
 DS7: 1979, Incident Level 
 DS8: 1980, Incident Level 
 DS9: 1981, Incident Level 
 DS10: 1982, Incident Level 
 DS41: 1973-1982, Incident Level: Concatenated File 
 DS50: 1973 Person Level, First Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS51: 1973 Person Level, Second Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS52: 1973 Person Level, Third Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS53: 1973 Person Level, Fourth Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS54: 1974 Person Level, First Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS55: 1974 Person Level, Second Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS56: 1974 Person Level, Third Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS57: 1974 Person Level, Fourth Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS58: 1975 Person Level, First Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS59: 1975 Person Level, Second Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS60: 1975 Person Level, Third Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS61: 1975 Person Level, Fourth Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS62: 1976 Person Level, First Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS63: 1976 Person Level, Second Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS64: 1976 Person Level, Third Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS65: 1976 Person Level, Fourth Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS66: 1977 Person Level, First Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS67: 1977 Person Level, Second Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS68: 1977 Person Level, Third Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS69: 1977 Person Level, Fourth Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS70: 1978 Person Level, First Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS71: 1978 Person Level, Second Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS72: 1978 Person Level, Third Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS73: 1978 Person Level, Fourth Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS74: 1979 Person Level, First Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS75: 1979 Person Level, Second Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS76: 1979 Person Level, Third Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS77: 1979 Person Level, Fourth Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS78: 1980 Person Level, First Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS79: 1980 Person Level, Second Interview Quarter, All Victims, 10 Percent Non-Victims, for Up to Four Incidents 
 DS101: 1973 Full File 
 DS102: 1974 Full File 
 DS103: 1975 Full File 
 DS104: 1976 Full File 
 DS105: 1977 Full File 
 DS106: 1978 Full File 
 DS107: 1979 Full File 
 DS108: 1980 Full File 
 DS109: 1981 Full File 
 DS110: 1982 Full File 
 DS111: Codebook for Full Files (1973-1976), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1973-1978)(PDF) 
 DS112: Codebook for Full File (1977), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1973-1978) (PDF) 
 DS113: Codebook for Full File (1978), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1973-1978) (PDF) 
 DS114: Codebook for Full Files (1979-1980), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1979-1980) (PDF) 
 DS115: Codebook for Full Files (1981-1982) and Incident-Level Files (1973-1982) (PDF) 
 DS116: SAS Statements for Full Files (1973-1976), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1973-1978) 
 DS117: SAS Statements for Full File (1977), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1973-1978) 
 DS118: SAS Statements for Full File (1978), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1973-1978) 
 DS119: SAS Statements for Full Files (1979-1980), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1979-1980) 
 DS120: SAS Statements for Full Files (1981-1982) and Incident-Level Files (1973-1982) 
 DS121: SPSS Statements for Full Files (1973-1976), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1973-1978) 
 DS122: SPSS Statements for Full File (1977), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1973-1978) 
 DS123: SPSS Statements for Full File (1978), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1973-1978) 
 DS124: SPSS Statements for Full Files (1979-1980), Incident-Level (1973-1982), and Person-Level (1979-1980) 
 DS125: SPSS Statements for Full Files (1981-1982) and Incident-Level Files (1973-1982)
description: Parts 101-110, the Full Files, are hierarchically structured into multiple levels. For the 1973-1977 files, the hierarchy comprises three levels: household, person, and incident. For the 1978-1982 files, the hierarchy consists of four levels: header record, household, person, and incident. There are 103 variables for an average of 35,000 households per quarter, 102 variables for an average of 65,000 persons per quarter, and 310 variables for an average of 8,000 incidents per quarter.
Users should note that there is an introductory section in the documentation for this data collection that explains the hierarchical datasets, rate estimating procedures, and standard error estimating procedures. Additional information on the sample also is provided.
The files are not numbered consecutively.
The codebooks are provided as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.
description: Population of the United States over 12 years of age.
description: A national sample of households was drawn using a stratified multistage cluster procedure. Rotating subsamples were reinterviewed at six-month intervals. Interviews were conducted with each household member over 12 years old. In generating the person-level file, a full sample of victims and a 10-percent sample of non-victims for up to four incidents were employed.