1.
Workshop 1A:
Multimodal approaches to
collecting crime survey data
Welcome
Catherine Grant
Centre for Crime and Justice
Office for National Statistics
@ONSfocus #ONSCrimeJustice

2.
Agenda
13:00 to 13:05 – Welcome, Catherine Grant, Centre for Crime and Justice, ONS
13:05 to 13:20 – Maria Molin, Swedish Crime Survey, Bra
13:20 to 13:35 – Jennifer Truman, US National Crime Victimisation Survey, Bureau of Justice
Statistics
13:35 to14:00 – Discussant Catherine Grant, Centre for Crime and Justice, ONS
@ONSfocus #ONSCrimeJustice

3.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Swedish Crime Survey
Division for Statistical Surveys
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention
Swedish Crime Survey
Division for Statistical Surveys
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention

4.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Telephone
interviews
Sample
20 000
16-79 years
SCS from 2006–2017

5.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Screening
• Background
• Victimisation
• Victims’ contacts
with the criminal
justice system
• Confidence in the
criminal justice
system
• Fear of crime
Exposure to:
• Burglary
• Mugging
• Sexual offences
• Assault
• Threat
• Harassment
• Fraud
• Car theft
• Theft out of/from a
vehicle
• Bicycle theft
Follow-up questions
• Offender
• Where
• When
• Severity
• Consequences
• Reported to the
Police
Previous contents and layout (2006-2017)
Telephone interviews

6.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Non-response in the SCS 2006–2017
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

7.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
The cost of data collection per respondent, SEK
(100 SEK is about 8 GBP)

8.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Sample size not
big enough
Increased non-
response
Increased costs
Decision to change method
Decision to change method
in the 2017 SCS

9.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Larger sample
1,000 people per LPA (=Local
Police Area)
Non-response 50%, meaning
1,000 x 2
= 2,000 per LPA
2,000 x 100 LPA = 200,000
people in the country
16-79 years 16-84 years

10.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Screening
• Background
• Confidence in the
criminal justice
system
• Fear of crime
• Victimisation
• Victims’ contacts
with the criminal
justice system
Exposure to:
• Bicycle theft
• Car theft
• Theft out of/from a
vehicle
• Burglary
• Sales fraud
• Card-/credit fraud
• Pick-pocketing
• Mugging
• Sexual offences
• Assault
• Threat
• Harassment
• Online harassment
Follow-up questions
• Perpetrator
• Where
• When
• Severity
• Consequences
• Reported to the
Police
New data collection mode (2017->)
Web- and postal questionnaire Telephone
interviews

11.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
– Questions have been re-phrased to fit the new survey format. From
spoken to written language.
– New questions added
– Questions removed
– New order of the questions
– Questions have been split up from one into several.
New and re-phrased questions

12.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Time series linked
Methodology
• Two full sized (old and new) surveys were done parallell in 2017.
• The old time series from SCS were recalculated by a factor based on the
difference in results between the old and the new survey conducted in
2017.
Quality
• Two external scientific reviews

13.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
9%
10%
SCS Previous design SCS New design SCS Previous design linked
Linking the two time series. Percentage of people exposed
to threat 2006-2020.

14.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Benefits of changing the method
• Stabilized response rate
• Better cost efficiency
• Better flexibility

15.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Non-response in the SCS 2006–2021
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Previous design New design

16.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Previous design New design
The cost of data collection per respondent, SEK
(100 SEK is about 8 GBP)

17.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Web- and postal
questionnaire
Sample 200 000
16-84 years Future plans…
Summary - SCS from 2017–>

18.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention www.bra.se/english
Contact information
Maria Molin
Team leader
maria.molin@bra.se

19.
Modernizing the National Crime
Victimization Survey Instruments
Jennifer L. Truman, Ph.D.
Statistician
February 23, 2022 | Annual Crime and Justice Forum

20.
Presentation overview
• Overview of the National Crime Victimization Survey
(NCVS)
• NCVS Instrument Redesign plans
• Recent web testing efforts
For more information, see the NCVS program page at https://bjs.ojp.gov/programs/ncvs.

21.
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
• In a typical year, the NCVS is administered from January 1 to December 31
• NCVS administered to persons age 12 or older from national representative
sample of U.S. households
• Respondents are interviewed in-person or by telephone, with new households
interviewed in-person
• Selected households remain in sample for 3.5 years, and eligible persons in
these households are interviewed every 6 months
• NCVS collects information on nonfatal violent and property crimes reported
and not reported to police

22.
NCVS Redesign

23.
A new NCVS instrument
• Modernize survey instrument design and methodology
• Generate better and more comprehensive measures of crime
• Engage non-victim respondents and collect more contextual information by
adding questions on police performance and community safety
• Maintain two-stage measurement approach in screening and classifying
criminal victimization

24.
Key changes
• Improving victimization screener:
– Using more behaviorally specific language
– Increasing yes/no responses
– Expanding screening probes for rape or sexual assault
– Adding new crime type – vandalism
• Using screener to guide crime incident report (CIR)
• Improving key measures in the CIR
• Expanding the information collected from victims, including use of
victim services, satisfaction with police response, and consequences
of victimization

25.
Flow of the new NCVS instrument

26.
Screener flow
Crime screeners:
theft, motor vehicle theft, break-in,
vandalism, attack, unwanted sexual
contact, catch-all
(IF YES TO SCREENER):
How many times?
(IF 6 OR MORE TIMES): Incidents
similar?
(IF SIMILAR):
Details to distinguish?
Date incident (month/year)
(IF OTHER INCIDENTS): Was this
incident part of any other incident?
(IF YES):
Which one?
Short incident description

27.
Interleaving approach

28.
Two new periodic modules
• Questions asked of all respondents
• Administer police questions in Jan–June and community in July–Dec
• Items engage the respondents who have no crimes to report
• Measures have utility for small area estimation and understanding patterns of
reporting to police
Police Performance:
contact with police and opinions about
police performance
Community Safety:
indicators of community issues
related to crime and
neighborhood safety

29.
Respondent communications
refresh

30.
Additional research on web version of the NCVS
• NCVS currently in-person or telephone, BJS testing self-administered, web-
based mode as a third mode for the future
• Research questions:
– Are respondents willing to complete NCVS on web?
– What proportion of respondents exhibit signs of inattention or satisficing?
– How do victimization rates estimated from self-administered web survey compared to those from
interviewer-administered survey
• Two sample design: (1) address-based sample (ABS), and
(2) probability-based online panel in the U.S.
• Household roster for ABS completed on web or paper
• Person level surveys will be completed on the web

31.
Next steps for the NCVS instrument redesign
Note: Phase 2 schedule is preliminary and subject to change.

32.
810 Seventh Street, NW, Washington, DC 20531 | Phone: +1 (202) 307-0765 | bjs.ojp.gov
Jennifer L. Truman
Statistician
Victimization Statistics Unit
jennifer.truman@usdoj.gov