U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Criminal Victimization, 2015

NCJ Number
250180
Author(s)
Jennifer L. Truman Ph.D.; Rachel E. Morgan Ph.D.
Date Published
October 2016
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This report presents national rates and levels of criminal victimization in 2015, annual changes from 2014, and includes statistics on the characteristics of crimes and victims and consequences of victimization.
Abstract

Presents national rates and levels of criminal victimization in 2015 and annual change from 2014. The report includes statistics on the characteristics of crimes and victims and consequences of victimization. It examines violent crimes (rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault) and property crimes (household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and theft). It also includes estimates of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, injury, and use of weapons in violent victimization. Data are from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which collects information on nonfatal crimes, reported and not reported to the police, against persons age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. During 2015, about 95,760 households and 163,880 persons were interviewed for the NCVS. 

  • No statistically significant change occurred in the rate of violent crime from 2014 (20.1 victimizations per 1,000) to 2015 (18.6 per 1,000).
  • No statistically significant change was detected in the percentages of violent crime reported to police from 2014 (46%) to 2015 (47%).
  • The rate of property crime decreased from 118.1 victimizations per 1,000 households in 2014 to 110.7 per 1,000 in 2015.
  • In 2015, 0.98% of all persons age 12 or older (2.7 million persons) experienced at least one violent victimization.
  • The prevalence rate of violent victimization declined from 1.11% of all persons age 12 or older in 2014 to 0.98% in 2015.