Crime and the Nation's Households

The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs has published Crime and the Nation’s Households 2005. This report presents data by household impact and property crimes reported in 2005, based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and highlights overall trends in households victimized by crime from 1994 to 2005.

The study’s major findings include

• One in 36 households (about 16 million of the 117.1 million U.S. households) experienced one or more violent crimes in 2006.
• Less than 1 percent of households had a member victimized by more than one type of violence.
• About one in 320 households was affected by intimate-partner violence.
• At least one instance of vandalism was experienced by 5.1 million households (4.4 percent).
• Eighteen percent of households headed by Hispanics experienced one or more crimes, compared with 13 percent of other Hispanic households.
• Households headed by persons identifying with more than one race were more likely to experience crimes than households in other racial categories.
• Households in the western United States were more likely to experience one or more crimes than households in other regions. The difference is chiefly attributable to property crimes.
• Households with six or more members (27 percent) were almost three times more likely to be victims of crime than one-person households (10 percent).
• The percentage of households experiencing crimes was higher in urban areas than in suburban or rural communities.
• One in ten households experienced theft, the most frequently occurring property crime.

This report is one in a series. More data from the survey and information on methodology are listed in Criminal Victimization in the United States, 2005 Statistical Tables available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cvusst.htm.