Presents estimates of national levels and rates of personal and property victimization for the year 2004. Rates and levels are provided for personal and property victimization by victim characteristics, type of crime, victim-offender relationship, use of weapons, and reporting to police. A special section is devoted to trends in victimization from 1993 to 2004. Estimates are from data collected using the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), an ongoing survey of households that interviews about 76,000 persons in 42,000 households twice annually. Violent crimes included in the report are rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault (from the NCVS), and homicide (from the FBI's UCR program). Property crimes examined are burglary, motor vehicle theft, and property theft.
- The rate of violent crime dropped 9% from the period 2001-02 to the period 2003-04.
- During 2004, 22% of all violent crime incidents were committed by an armed offender; 6% by an offender with a firearm.
- Between 2001-02 and 2003-04 violent crime decreased 17% in the West, from 31 to 26 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older.