Craig A. Perkins, Bureau of Justice Statistics

September 1, 2003    NCJ 194820

Discusses the nature and prevalence of violent crime by armed offenders, and the consequences to the victims, age 12 or older, from 1993 through 2001. Numerical tables present data on victim characteristics (sex, race and ethnicity, age, and annual household income); details about the victims’ injuries; place and time of the violent incident; and homicides involving armed assailants. Figures show trends on weapon use by offenders.

Highlights:

• Approximately half of all robberies, about a quarter of all assaults, and roughly a twelfth of all rapes/sexual assaults involved an armed assailant.
• From 1993 through 2001 blacks accounted for 46% of homicide victims and 54% of victims of firearm homicide but 12% of the U.S. population.
• Estimates from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) indicate that between 1993 and 2001 approximately 26% of the average annual 8.9 million violent victimizations were committed by offenders armed with a weapon.

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