Bureau of Justice Statistics

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Bureau of Justice Statistics
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Conducting Victimization and Community Safety
Surveys Using Web-based Technology

• U.N. Meeting on Crime Statistics
• Geneva
• November 2004
• Steven K. Smith
• Bureau of Justice Statistics

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Collecting and Reporting Crime Statistics in the
U.S.

• I. Crimes reported to the police
• -- Uniform Crime Reports Program
• -- National Incident-Based Reporting
• II. National Crime Victimization Survey

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Crimes Reported to the Police

• The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports Program (UCR)
  collects information from 17,000 local law
  enforcement agencies.
• Major UCR crimes include homicide, forcible rape,
  robbery, aggravated assault, burglary,
  larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.

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Incident-based Reporting

• Under NIBRS, law enforcement authorities provide
  information to the FBI on each criminal incident
  involving 46 specific offenses, including the 8
  major crimes.
• Details about each incident include multiple
  victims and offenders, arrest information on the
  46 offenses plus 11 lesser offenses.

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National Crime Victimization Survey

• Characteristics and consequences of criminal
  victimization in the United States.
• Household based survey since 1973.
• 42,000 households comprising nearly 76,000
  persons.

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Standardized Types of Crime

• Largest ongoing survey of its kind.
• Standardized categories TOC based on responses.
• Collects data on rape, sexual assault, robbery,
  assault, theft, household burglary, and motor
  vehicle theft.
• Covers cross-section of U.S. population -- women,
  the elderly, members of various racial groups,
  city dwellers.

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Utility of Survey Data

• Resource allocation
• Crime prevention programs
• Delivery of victim services

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Software Development

• Support from Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)
• Upgrade from CVS 1.0
• Range of question formats

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BJScvs Software

• Web-based
• Library of questionnaires
• Use interviewers or self-administered

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Web-based advantages

• Ease of application
• Data entry
• Tracking responses

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State level surveys

• Illinois
• Utah
• Wyoming

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Victimization Surveys in Indian Country

• Southern Ute
• Umatilla
• Zuni Pueblo

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Crime Issues in Indian Country

• Alcohol-related crimes
• Domestic violence
• Inter-racial violence

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Issues in Community Safety

• Satisfaction with the police
• Neighborhood problems
• Feedback on services

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Police-Public Contact Survey

• Publics experience with the police
• Traffic stops
• Use of force

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Disseminating Crime Data

• Web-based access
• BJS data on-line
• Fedstats.gov

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Fedstats.gov
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Information Available for the State
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And City Level
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County
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MapStats.gov

• Easy for users to quickly drill down to common
  geographic units
• Presents data for state, county, city and Federal
  judicial geographic units

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Thematic Mapping
Population, percent change, 1990 to 2000