Criminal Victimization and Perceptions of Community Safety in 12 Cities, 1998

• NCJ Number: 173940
• Date Published: May 1999
• Author(s): S K Smith; G W Steadman; T D Minton; M Townsend
• Length: 49 pages
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Report (Annual/Periodic)

Annotation

This report on a 1998 survey of criminal victimization and citizen perceptions in 12 cities across the United States focused on the development of a survey instrument and methodology that can be used by law enforcement agencies to collect information on criminal victimization, citizen attitudes toward the police, their willingness to report crimes to the police, and the impact of various community policing strategies and tactics on crime and neighborhood conditions.

Abstract

Presents survey data from 12 cities regarding criminal victimization and residents' attitudes toward their neighborhood, their city, and the local policing services. For the first time in 20 years, BJS in joint effort with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) conducted city-level surveys on crime victimization. These city surveys, different from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), used Random Digit Dialing (RDD) to contact households. Participating cities are -- Chicago, IL, Kansas City, MO, Knoxville, TN, Los Angeles, CA, Madison, WI, New York, NY, San Diego, CA, Savannah, GA, Spokane, WA, Springfield, MA, Tucson, AZ, and Washington, DC. Unlike the NCVS, findings from these surveys do not represent national estimates.