This document reports on the research methodology and findings from a national field test aimed at comparing the performance and procedures of the current and newly developed versions of the core NCVS instrument; it describes the field test design, methodology, findings, and implications for practice.
This report describes testing efforts to develop and assess a new National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) instrument. This testing was a part of the NCVS Instrument Redesign and Testing Project, a major multiyear effort to revamp the existing core survey instrument, which was last updated in 1992. The goals of the instrument redesign were to (1) update the content of the survey, and (2) increase the efficiency of the data collection. This report details the methodology and findings from a large-scale national field test to compare two versions of the core NCVS instrument. It compares performance of the current NCVS instrument and procedures to those from the new instrument.