ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews what we might know about the distribution of the general populations' experiences of crime victimization from the data we have available. It describes some of the problems for explanation that arise from the various processes of selection which underpin the generation of data, as it is to advance explanation of the phenomenon of crime victimization risk itself. The chapter applies some statistical reasoning in exploring certain aspects of the empirical distribution of crime victimization. Over the typical window of opportunity available to observe crime victimization, there are many more non-victims than there are victims in the population. While statistical methods can document the epidemiology of crime victimization, how prevention policy is to be constructed, and the cultural, ethical and political economy considerations that would need to be taken into account, presents the greatest challenge to the whole field of victimology.
