BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

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The Nation's Two Crime Measures

  • BJS's National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)- reported and unreported crime from the victim's perspective.
  • FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) - crimes reported by law enforcement

Like many other indicators used to assess conditions in the United States, these two indicators of crime complement each other to produce a more comprehensive portrait of the Nation's crime problem.

Some of the differences between UCR and NCVS are –

  UCR NCVS
Geographic coverage National & State estimates, local agency reports National estimates
Collection method Reports by law enforcement to the FBI on a monthly basis Survey of as many as 77,200 households and 134,000 individuals age 12 or older.
Measures Index crimes* reported by law enforcement Reported and unreported crime; details about the crimes, victims, and offenders

*seven serious crimes

For more information about the purposes and advantages of the UCR and the NCVS, see The Nation's Two Crime Measures.

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Terms & Definitions

Age category The appropriate age category is determined by the respondent's age on the last day of the month preceding the interview.
 
Aggravated assault An attack or attempted attack with a weapon, regardless of whether an injury occurred, and an attack without a weapon when serious injury results.
With injury - An attack without a weapon when serious injury results or an attack with a weapon involving any injury. Serious injury includes broken bones, lost teeth, internal injuries, loss of consciousness, and any unspecified injury requiring two or more days of hospitalization.

Threatened with a weapon - Threat or attempted attack by an offender armed with a gun, knife, or other object used as a weapon that does not result in victim injury.
 
Assault An unlawful physical attack or threat of attack. Assaults may be classified as aggravated or simple. Rape, attempted rape, and sexual assaults are excluded from this category, as well as robbery and attempted robbery. The severity of assaults ranges from minor threats to nearly fatal incidents.
 
Burglary Unlawful or forcible entry or attempted entry of a residence. This crime usually, but not always, involves theft. The illegal entry may be by force, such as breaking a window or slashing a screen, or may be without force by entering through an unlocked door or an open window. As long as the person entering has no legal right to be present in the structure a burglary has occurred. Furthermore, the structure need not be the house itself for a burglary to take place; illegal entry of a garage, shed, or any other structure on the premises also constitutes household burglary. If breaking and entering occurs in a hotel or vacation residence, it is still classified as a burglary for the household whose member or members were staying there at the time the entry occurred.
Attempted forcible entry-A form of burglary in which force is used in an attempt to gain entry.

Completed burglary - A form of burglary in which a person who has no legal right to be present in the structure successfully gains entry to a residence, by use of force, or without force.

Forcible entry - A form of completed burglary in which force is used to gain entry to a residence. Some examples include breaking a window or slashing a screen.

Unlawful entry without force -A form of completed burglary committed by someone having no legal right to be on the premises, even though no force is used.

 
Collection year The set of victimizations reported to the NCVS in interviews conducted during the same calendar year. This set may include victimizations which occurred in the previous calendar year, due to the retrospective nature of the NCVS interview. Collection year data are used in tables beginning in 1996. See "Data year."
 
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