Repeat victimization in the ICVS and the NCVS

Overall, 40 per cent of crimes reported to the International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS) in 2000 were repeats against the same target within a year, with variation by crime type and country. However, policy makers have yet to realise the potential of victim-oriented crime reduction strategies. A preliminary comparison of repeat victimization uncovered by the ICVS and the US National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) finds ICVS rates are double those of the NCVS. The NCVS may be seriously flawed in the manner in which it measures repeat victimization, and hence crime overall. Further study is needed, but since the NCVS is an influential survey, the possibility that it is misleading may have widespread implications for crime-related research, theory, policy and practice in the United States and elsewhere.