Title: Criminal Victimization, 2008

Publication Date: September 02, 2009

What does it say?

This report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics presents the annual estimates of rates and levels of personal and property victimization and describes the year-to-year change from 2007 as well as trends for the ten-year period from 1999 through 2008.

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) collects information on nonfatal crimes, reported and not reported to the police, against persons age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. It does not include homicides.

The number of non-fatal victimizations with a gun declined 13 percent from 2007 to 2008 (394,580 to 343,550). Since 1999, gun victimizations have declined 39 percent, from 562,870 to 343,550.

How can I use it?

Since 1994, the Brady Law has stopped 1.8 million attempts-to-purchase a gun by dangerous people.  But, Brady criminal background checks only apply to an estimated 60 percent of gun sales. We need to keep working to take guns out of crime by extending Brady background checks to all gun sales, including those at gun shows.

Citation

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Victimization, 2008, NCJ 227777