Serious violent crime levels declined since 1993.

Note: The serious violent crimes included are rape, robbery, aggravated

assault, and homicide. (For related data about homicide trends, see Homicide Trends in the U.S.). The National Crime Victimization Survey redesign was implemented in 1993; the area with the lighter shading is before the redesign and the darker area after the redesign. The data before 1993 are adjusted to make them comparable with data collected since the redesign. The adjustment methods are described in Criminal Victimization 1973-95. Estimates for 1993 and beyond are based on collection year while earlier estimates are based on data year. For additional information about the methods used, see Criminal Victimization 2002.

• The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), a household survey ongoing since 1972, that interviews about 80,000 persons age 12 and older in 43,000 households twice each year about their victimizations from crime.
• The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) that collects information on crimes and arrests reported by law enforcement authorities to the FBI.

Although each measure is different, both the NCVS and the UCR show that serious violent crime levels declined in recent years. For a discussion of UCR and NCVS trends that uses these data, see "True Crime Stories? Accounting for Differences in our National Crime Indicators" from Chance by BJS staff members, Michael R. Rand and Callie Marie Rennison.

The measures are:

Total serious violent crime
The number of homicides recorded by police plus the number of rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults from the victimization survey whether or not they were reported to the police.

Victimizations reported to the police
The number of homicides recorded by police plus the number of rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults from the victimization survey that victims said were reported to the police.

Crimes recorded by the police
The number of homicides, forcible rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults included in the Uniform Crime Reports of the FBI excluding commercial robberies and crimes that involved victims under age 12.

Arrests for violent crimes
The number of persons arrested for homicide, forcible rape, robbery or aggravated assault as reported by law enforcement agencies to the FBI.

The adjustment methods used on the data in the chart were developed by James Alan Fox, Ph.D. for Trends in Juvenile Violence, a report produced under a Bureau of Justice Statistics grant and by Michael Rand, James Lynch, and David Cantor as reported in Criminal Victimization 1973-95.