BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

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Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
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Home | Crime Type | Violent Crime
Violent Crime
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Violent crime includes murder, rape and sexual assault, robbery, and assault. Information about murder is obtained on a yearly basis from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports. There are two measures for non-fatal violence—the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). NCVS measures rape or sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault.

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Data Collections & Surveys

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Publications & Products


Criminal Victimization, 2015 Presents national rates and levels of criminal victimization in 2015 and annual change from 2014.
  Press Release | Summary (PDF 203K) | PDF (818K) | ASCII file (47K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 13K)
Part of the Criminal Victimization Series

Criminal Victimization, 2014 Presents 2014 estimates of rates and levels of criminal victimization in the United States.
  Press Release | PDF (745KB) | ASCII file (42KB) | Comma Separated Values (CSV) (Zip format)
Part of the Criminal Victimization Series

Socio-emotional Impact of Violent Crime Examines victims' socio-emotional problems resulting from violent crime, including moderate to severe distress, problems with family or friend relationships, or problems at work or school.
  Press Release | PDF (1.5M) | ASCII file (56K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 42K)

Criminal Victimization, 2013 IN 2013 VIOLENT AND PROPERTY CRIME RATES DECLINED AFTER TWO YEARS OF INCREASES
 
Part of the Criminal Victimization Series

Criminal Victimization, 2013 (Revised) Presents 2013 estimates of rates and levels of criminal victimization in the United States. This bulletin includes violent victimization (rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault) and property victimization (burglary, motor vehicle theft, and property theft).
  Press Release | PDF (1M) | ASCII file (40K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 34K)
Part of the Criminal Victimization Series

HISPANICS IN NEW HISPANIC AREAS EXPERIENCED HIGHER RATES OF VIOLENT VICTIMIZATION THAN IN OTHER AREAS HISPANICS IN NEW HISPANIC AREAS EXPERIENCED HIGHER RATES OF VIOLENT VICTIMIZATION THAN IN OTHER AREAS
  Press Release (8K)

Violent Victimization in New and Established Hispanic Areas, 2007–2010 Examines violent victimization rates by victim's race and ethnicity within four Hispanic areas from 2007 to 2010.
  Press Release (8K) | PDF (6M) | ASCII file (35K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 28K)

The Nation's Two Measures of Homicide Summarizes the United States' two national data collection systems related to homicide: the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Supplementary Homicide Reports and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Fatal Injury Reports.
  PDF (578K) | ASCII file (21K)

Seasonal Patterns in Criminal Victimization Trends Uses data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to examine the seasonal patterns in violent and property crime victimization in the United States from 1993 to 2010.
  PDF (2M) | ASCII file (35K) | Delimited-comma format (CSV) (Zip format 32K)

Nonfatal Domestic Violence, 2003–2012 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACCOUNTED FOR ABOUT A FIFTH OF ALL VIOLENT VICTIMIZATIONS BETWEEN 2003 AND 2012
  Press Release

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Terms & Definitions

Aggravated assault An attack or attempted attack with a weapon, regardless of whether an injury occurred, and an attack without a weapon when serious injury results.
With injury - An attack without a weapon when serious injury results or an attack with a weapon involving any injury. Serious injury includes broken bones, lost teeth, internal injuries, loss of consciousness, and any unspecified injury requiring two or more days of hospitalization.

Threatened with a weapon - Threat or attempted attack by an offender armed with a gun, knife, or other object used as a weapon that does not result in victim injury.
 
Assault An unlawful physical attack or threat of attack. Assaults may be classified as aggravated or simple. Rape, attempted rape, and sexual assaults are excluded from this category, as well as robbery and attempted robbery. The severity of assaults ranges from minor threats to nearly fatal incidents.
 
Hate crime victimization Refers to a single victim or household that experienced a criminal incident believed by the victim to be motivated by prejudice based on race, gender or gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. The Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), Hate Crime Statistics Program, are the principal sources of annual information on hate crime in the United States and use the definition of hate crime provided in the Hate Crime Statistics Act (28 U.S.C. ยง 534).
 
Prevalence rate Number of persons or households per 1,000 who experienced at least one victimization during the year.
 
Rape Forced sexual intercourse including both psychological coercion as well as physical force. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal, anal or oral penetration by the offender (s). This category also includes incidents where the penetration is from a foreign object such as a bottle. Includes attempted rapes, male as well as female victims, and both heterosexual and same sex rape. Attempted rape includes verbal threats of rape.
 
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