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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
A yearly national survey, federally funded and conducted by the Justice Department and the U.S. Census Bureau, that uses a large, carefully drawn sample of citizens who are asked about their victimization in the past year. The survey reports higher crime rates than the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as crimes that went unreported to the police are more likely to be included in the NCVS. Twice each year, data regarding the frequency and characteristics of offenses including rape, robbery, assault, and theft are collected by telephone from about 75,000 people in 42,000 households. While generally considered more accurate than the UCR, the NCVS suffers from threats to its validity. Limitations include overreporting and underreporting of criminal victimization and underrepresentation ...