The Source for Crime and Justice Data  View Record Details
Pub. Type: Electronic Source Crime Victimization in the US: A
Data-Driven Learning Guide  Crime victimization is defined as
the involuntary, personal exposure to criminal acts.
Victimization can be economic, physical, psychological and/or
emotional.  It is difficult to know exactly how many crimes are
committed and how many people are victimized every year because
a significant percentage of crimes (almost half of violent
crimes and about one third of property crimes) go unreported to,
or undiscovered by, police. Criminologists refer to this unknown
as the "dark figure of crime." By polling a large number of
households, victimization surveys such as the National Crime
Victimization Survey are able to uncover some of the crime
incidents that were never reported or discovered by police. They
also provide more detailed information about the crime, victim,
and offender(s), than other official sources of crime statistics
such as the FBI's Uniform Crime Re