BJS RELEASES DYNAMIC ONLINE CRIMINAL VICTIMIZATION DATA TOOL

WASHINGTON – Today, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) launched an interactive online tool that gives the public instant access to the largest collection of data on criminal victimization in the United States.

The NCVS Victimization Analysis Tool (NVAT) provides a direct and user-friendly way to work with 18 years of data about victims of crime. The tool makes it easy for people to find and use information from BJS’s National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).

The NCVS is the nation’s primary source of information on criminal victimization. The NCVS collects data on nonfatal crime victimizations reported and not reported to the police against people age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. During 2010, the most recent year data are available, 40,974 households and 73,283 individuals age 12 and older were interviewed twice for the NCVS. The NCVS produces national rates and estimates of personal and property victimization in the U.S. It also describes the characteristics of crimes, victims, and households.

The Quick Tables on the analysis tool’s home page allow users to view trends in violent and property crime at a glance. Users can also see estimates of the amount of crime reported and not reported to the police, and find tables of violent crime by victim-offender relationship. For more detailed analysis, users can create customized tables of national crime estimates, by year, type of crime, and other characteristics.

This dynamic web tool significantly enhances BJS’s ability to make crucial information more accessible to the public and bring data directly to users.

The estimates in the tool reflect a recent update in NCVS counting practices. More information is available in the BJS report Methods for Counting High-Frequency Repeat Victimizations in the National Crime Victimization Survey.

This data tool was created by BJS statisticians Jennifer Truman and Michael Planty and BJS information technology specialist Joseph Mulako-Wangota. The tool and additional information about the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ statistical reports and programs are available on the BJS website at http://www.bjs.gov/.

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The Office of Justice Programs (OJP), headed by Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary Lou Leary, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist victims. OJP has six components: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. More information about OJP can be found at http://www.ojp.gov.