Victimization Survey Method
The victimization survey method measures crime by asking a representative sample of households or individuals what they have actually experienced, rather than counting offenses recorded by police. Pioneered in the United States with the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and developed in Britain as the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), it captures the 'dark figure' of crime that never reaches the authorities, using a rotating-panel design with screening questions, detailed incident forms, bounding interviews, and weighted estimation.
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Sources
- Lynch, J. P., & Addington, L. A. (Eds.) (2007). Understanding Crime Statistics: Revisiting the Divergence of the NCVS and UCR. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9780521862042
- Cantor, D., & Lynch, J. P. (2000). Self-report surveys as measures of crime and criminal victimization. Criminal Justice 2000, Volume 4, 85–138. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice. link ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Crime Victimization Survey Methodology. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/criminology/victimization-survey-method
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- Crime Concentration IndexCriminology↔ compare
- Repeat Victimization AnalysisCriminology↔ compare
- Self-Report Delinquency ScaleCriminology↔ compare