Shannan M. Catalano, Ph.D., Bureau of Justice Statistics

September 12, 2004    NCJ 205455

Presents estimates of national levels and rates of personal and property victimization for the year 2003. Rates and levels are provided for personal and property victimization by victim characteristics, type of crime, victim-offender relationship, use of weapons, and reporting to police. A special section of this annual report is devoted to trends in victimization rates from 1993 to 2003. Estimates are from data collected using the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), an ongoing survey of households that interviews about 75,000 persons in 42,000 households twice annually. Violent crimes included in the report are rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault (from the NCVS), and homicide (from the FBI's UCR program). Property crimes examined are burglary, motor vehicle theft, and property theft.

Highlights:

• During 2003, 24% of all violent crime incidents were committed by an armed offender; 7% by an offender with a firearm.
• Persons who have been historically the most vulnerable to violent crime - male, blacks, and youths - continued to be victimized at higher rates than others in 2003.
• Rates of robbery and assault did not change from 2002 to 2003, while the rate for rape/sexual assault declined marginally.

Part of the Criminal Victimization Series

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