Single downloadable archive of U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Criminal Victimization, annual reports from 1978 to 2012. With summary reports for 1973-79 and 1973-82, and other closely related BJS reports on criminal victimization.

BJS’s annual report Criminal Victimization is an authoritative, widely cited source of information on the extent of crime. Criminal Victimization is based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). NCVS is a major, nationally representative population survey asking persons about their experiences of victimization associated with crime.

Criminal Victimization and NCVS have under-appreciated conceptual and technical issues. NCVS data for domestic violence significantly under-report serious domestic violence relative to surveys of injuries treated in hospital emergency departments. NCVS-based figures for rape/sexual assault have changed significantly over time. NCVS data on rape/sexual assault depend greatly on obscure technical definitions and survey administrators’ judgments on a relatively small number of cases.

Related datasets:

• Punishment Prevalence Yearly by Sex in the U.S. from 1850
• Criminalization & Incarceration by Rape Victimization Claims
• Claims Dataset: Domestic Violence Is the Leading Cause of Injury to Women