ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the history, development, changes, and future of the most important victimization survey in the US, the National Crime Victimization Survey. A regularly acknowledged drawback of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)is that it is a survey that asks people about their victimization experiences. A great many other crimes are also outside the purview of the NCVS: white-collar crime, corporate crime, environmental or green crime, state crime, and a great deal more. One important concern has been that government-sponsored surveys such as the NCVS produce lower levels of victimization estimates than many nongovernmental surveys. The result was that the NCVS measured an almost identical set of crimes to those gathered in the NCS. Since then, NCVS criminal victimizations measured include: rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, simple assault, pocket-picking and pursesnatching, burglary, motor vehicle theft, property theft.
