Data on Violence and Crime
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67
68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84
85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101
102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115
It is axiomatic that reliable and valid surveys on violence, offending, and
victimization are critical to an understanding of violence and crime in the
1See, for example, Annest and Mercey (1998); Biderman and Lynch (1991); Maltz (1999);
MacKenzie et al. (1990); Jarvis (1992); Wiersema et al. (2000); and Riedel (1999). The National
Opinion Research Center (NORC) produces an ongoing series of methodological reports
on the GSS, covering topics ranging from item order and wording, to nonresponse
errors, and hundreds of other methodological topics. The reports are available directly from
the NORC and are listed on http://www.icpsr.umich.edu:8080/GSS under “GSS Methodological
Reports.”
United States and for any assessment of the quality of activities and programs
aimed at reducing violence (National Research Council, 2003). Detailed data
on firearm-related death, injury, and risk behaviors are limited.
Most measurement of crime in this country emanates from two major
data sources. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports has collected information
on crimes known to the police and arrests from local and state jurisdictions
throughout the country for almost seven decades. The National Crime
Victimization Survey, a general population survey designed to discover the
extent, nature, and consequences of criminal victimization, has existed since
the early 1970s. Other national surveys that focus on specific problems,
such as delinquency, violence against women, and child abuse, also provide
important data on crime, victims, and offenders. A variety of data sources
have been used to assemble information on suicide and accidents, and the
National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) has been funded via
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to collect information
on all violent deaths.
In this section, we describe four datasets used to monitor and assess
firearms-related violence: the National Crime Victimization Survey, the
Uniform Crime Reports, and two emerging systems, the National Incident-
Based Reporting System and the National Violent Death Reporting System.
The latter two are thought to hold some promise for improving the research
information on firearms and violence. Many of the other data collection
sources (listed in Table 2-1) have very limited information on firearms and
have been assessed elsewhere (see, for example, Annest and Mercy, 1998;
Institute of Medicine, 1999).